Apollo Lykaios, Lord of the Wolves | Apollo, der Herr der Wölfe | Apollo, Seigneur LoupAnother Greek god is Apollo Lykaios, "Apollo Wolf", or "Apollo Lord of the Wolves" (see below). It has been speculated that Apollo's original, pre-anthropomorphic form, was that of a wolf, though this is highly speculative: many Greco-Roman anthropomorphic deities might have had non-human predecessors, but we generally lack sufficient evidence to make such assumptions. It has also been suggested that Apollo Lykaios might here simply refer to the place/location of some the Apollo shrines, or the Lykaios means "bright" (also cf. Fritz Graf, Apollo, p.99).However, our ancient sources clearly associate Apollo with wolves. Already in Homer's epos on the Trojan war (c.850 BC), we hear of a"vow to Apollo, the wolf-born (Λυκηγενής) god, famed for his bow, that he would sacrifice a glorious hecatomb of firstling lambs" (Homer Iliad 4.85).Who is this god Apollo, the son of Zeus and Leto? According to Aelian, i...