In Roman mythology, the wolf that suckled Romulus and Remus is called the Lupa, or she-wolf. She rescued and nursed the abandoned twins beside the Tiber River, making her one of the most enduring symbols of Rome’s foundation story.
According to the familiar version of the myth, King Amulius ordered the infants abandoned because he feared their family line. The twins survived after being left near the river and were sheltered by the she-wolf in a cave known as the Lupercal. A shepherd named Faustulus later discovered them and raised them with his wife.
The Latin word lupa means “she-wolf,” although ancient accounts also preserve an alternative interpretation: lupa could refer to a prostitute, a term sometimes connected with the twins’ human foster mother, Acca Larentia. That possibility adds complexity, but Lupa remains the canonical quiz answer for the mythological animal.
Romulus eventually became Rome’s legendary founder, while the twins’ image appeared on coins, monuments, mosaics, and the famous Capitoline Wolf. The story’s earliest written forms date to antiquity and vary in several details.