Submitted Name Revision History

Derived from Latin lupus meaning "wolf". According to the 2nd-century historian Justin, Lupercus was a pastoral deity invoked to protect fertility, in whose honour were celebrated the Lupercalia rites on February 15, in the Lupercal (a cave on the Palatine Hill where tradition held that Romulus and Remus were suckled by the she-wolf). Lupercalia was a very ancient pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed on February 13 through 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Lupercalia subsumed Februa, an earlier-origin spring cleansing ritual held on the same date, which gives the month of February its name.