These two sections are both excerpted, in order, from our rather lengthier earlier work:

On The Wolves Of Rudra – The Terrific, Well-Storied Wolves And Wolf Forms Of The Indo-European Sky Father

Lykeios – On The Wolves of Light and Lycia [ I ]

λύκειος – Lykeios (more properly, ‘Lukeios’ but with an accented ‘u’) is a prominent Apollonian epithet. Its meaning should be reasonably clear. It either means the relatively straightforward ‘Of the Wolf’ / ‘Wolfy’ … or it means ‘Of Lycia’ / ‘Lycian’ … or, for rather significant interest to our purposes – it pertains to λύκη : ‘Luke’, as in λευκός (‘Leukos’) – that is to say ‘Light’; and with a particular emphasis upon the pre-dawn or twilight. 

Now it is not our purpose to endeavour to reconcile all three of these. Yet it is intriguing to contemplate that the old pseudo-folk etymological ethnonymic speculation pertaining to Lycia may yet prove to have some ring of truth to it. That is to say – making it a realm of Wolves. Certainly, they would not be the only nor the first Indo-European tribe to overtly declare themselves to be the ‘Wolves’. Nor to be recognized by other neighbours via such an epithet. But as we say – Anatolian IE ethnonymics are not our purpose to get into here. 

Now I personally suspect that the introduction of Apollo (at least under that name) into the Hellenic sphere occurred due to cultural contact (probably at spear-point) with the Anatolian IE – the Apaliunas found mentioned in the treaty between (Luwian) Wilusa (Ilium – Troy) and the Hittites representing an obvious point of origination considering Apollo’s famed favouring of Troy during that city’s eponymous, cataclysmic war. The meaning is somewhat debated (with a perhaps mistaken attempt to link this to the ‘Stormgod of the Army’ mentioned immediately prior in the Treaty’s list of witnessing Gods), yet appears to work out, effectively, as ‘The Hunter’. Strictly speaking, it is presented more as the ‘One Who Entraps’; which, funnily enough, actually coincides rather usefully with some of the Roudran theonymics well-familiar to us from the Vedas. In any case, an Archer as Huntsman is most definitely a familiar image to us. And we should also observe with interest the occurrence of this ‘Lykeios’ (or ‘Lykaios’) epithet in direct relation to Zeus (a figure that also engages in one of the primary totemic ‘markers’ of the Indo-European Wolf-Lord viz. His Defence of Semele against the would-be interloper Actaeon). We shall come to address this in due course.

This suite of co-occurrence helps to account for the otherwise most curious situation we have occasionally had cause to observe when it comes to ‘reconciling’ the Hellenic Indo-European theology with that we find in the Vedic. Namely, the fact that we have all of these direct and inferential attestations for Rudra as Dyaus Pitar, a situation doubly confirmed via the strong concordancy of Rudra to the ‘Sky Father’ reconstructive IE deific complex … yet we also have good grounds to link Rudra to Apollo. Can a given IE mythos really have two Sky Fathers, One a Father of the Other? I think so. ‘Apollo’ effectively resulting from the ‘core’ Hellenic sphere ‘incorporating in’ a deific from another, fellow Indo-European people upon its fringes. Having ‘encountered’ said other Indo-European group and its mythos – and brought in its seeming-chief deific (perhaps), as a ‘Subsidiary’ (indeed, a Son, a Descendant – and therefore owing fealty to the Father) within their own major pantheonic perspective. We can see some arguable ‘resonancy’ for this when we consider the situation viz. Sabazius of the Phrygians and Thracians – wherein whilst we can see that via etymology and other such factors, this should be a Sky Father deific expression (and seemingly recognized as such at least sometimes during the course of Antiquity) … in various Classical texts we instead find Sabazios referred to as an expression of a ‘Son’ of the Sky Father (Zeus Pater / Jupiter). 

Yet these are peripheral matters to us. And we ought best keep moving.

The Wolves Who Stalk Between The Stars [ II ]

The Lycians, we find to the East of the Hellenics – and it is therefore somewhat appropriate to hear of ‘Morning Pre-Dawn’ ‘Gloaming’ light in such regard. However there is a rather more direct means via which we may seek to explicate this potential ‘Light’ root for Apollo Lykeios. 

I contend that in part what is therefore referred to here is the Moon. Which, as we are well aware, is in most Indo-European mythic perspectives, held to be a male deific. This is certainly the case for the archaic Anatolian IE – at least, insofar as we know, based largely upon both Hittite as well as Luwian evidence (although later Anatolian IE, under Hellenic influence, appear to have ‘broadened’ in this regard). Indeed, even amidst the Greeks we still occasionally find male linkages – one of the Eyes of the Sky Father, per the Orphic Rhapsodic Hymn to Zeus is stated to be the Moon (a counterpart in this position to Helios – and directly recalling the much earlier Vedically attested notion for the ‘Eyes of the Sky Father’ as the Sun and the Moon (and Fire when we are dealing with the Three Eyed One)), for instance. 

This would therefore posit Apollo with such ‘Wolf’ association in the name as perhaps being a Lunar Divinity. And that is something that makes considerable sense. After all, as everyone knows from childhood, we associate Wolves and the Moon – Wolves Howl to the Moon (a ‘Lord of Wolves’, we may suggest?), Wolves – or, rather, Werewolves – are similarly ‘governed’ by the Moon, and we also find rather intriguing mentions in certain Classical texts for the most excellent eyesight of the Wolf even amidst conditions wherein only they can see. Indeed, there is a direct term for the ‘Wolf-Light’ in such a context attested in Aelian’s De Natura Animalium … and more upon that work in a moment ! 

Some corroboration for my theorizing may, perhaps, be offered by SBr XI 1 5, wherein we do indeed find the Moon being referred to as a Hound. We also note with some interest the suspiciously familiar offering of a Bow and Three Arrows in order to propitiate or ward against the annihilatory attentions of that Hound-Moon upon the cattle-flocks of the sacrifice [SBr XI 1 5 10]. This perhaps resonates due to the famed ‘Three-Arrow’ [Tri-Kanda] utilized by Rudra as Pashupati (the Lord of Beasts) in the various Brahmana tellings of His Deed – something that most definitely ‘resonates’ with the Wolf-Form when we consider the identification of said Archer with the star Sirius within the broader Jyotisha milieu. 

So … I would posit this notion of the ‘Wolf Form’ of the Sky Father being something along the lines of ‘The Wolf That Stalks Between The Stars” – yet before somebody makes the inverted-suggestion, we do NOT mean this in anything like the sense of the Nordic Hati Hróðvitnisson (another ‘Son of Famous Wolf’, it should seem … but, of course, a dark and devilish counterpart to the Divine Great Wolf Whom we should righteously hail). Instead, we contend that this particular Wolf is, in addition to being a Hunter – is a Guardian. 

[Art by S.W.]