The She-Wolf (la Loba) is the creature met first on the first level of Hell: a hungry guardian who also knows the ways, and the embodiment of avarice, “the hunger and thirst of the world”.
| Type | Creature |
| Abode | First level of Hell (Rome, Lavaricia) |
| Spanish entry | La Loba |
Description
She is “particularly furious”: black, with “red tones that were more than just bloodshot eyes”, though “there was no blood”. Her weapon is “a spectacular breath, necrotic and cursed”. She always appears in the singular, never in a pack.
Nature
She resides on the first level of Hell, the one associated with Rome and with Lavaricia. There she is both a hungry guardian and a knower of the ways: she knows where one can pass.
Three layers stack on the same animal:
- the founding she-wolf of Rome, who nursed Romulus and Remus;
- the infernal she-wolf, who devours instead of nourishing;
- the allegory of avarice, set at “the center of this cosmos”, who “wanted to devour the sun, the moon and capital”.
The spear encounter
In the only recorded fight, a lizard ran in with a spear; she leapt, and “the spear sticks into the she-wolf and twists downward”.
The silver-white she-wolf
The records also hold a silver-white she-wolf of the world above, who travels with a company near their coach as a companion: she watches, recovers from wounds and can stay out of a fight. Last seen, she is “badly wounded”, circling the coach, having taken no part in the last fight. She is rumored to have Alirón the Basque as master or companion; no source establishes it.
Open questions
- Whether the white and the black she-wolf are one beast is unknown; their colors are incompatible and no transformation is stated.
- Whether the spear killed her is not recorded.
- What the cursed breath does, whether she speaks, and how she uses her knowledge of the ways are unknown.
- What Lavaricia is (a level, a region of Rome, a name) is left at “possibly”.
- Her size, weight and voice are not recorded.