Now in inquiring into the meaning of the symbol of the wolf in this signification, it may be first remarked that it is a beast of prey. In this point of view it cannot but appear a remarkable coincidence that Apollo should in the Iliad assume the form of a hawk,(1283) and a species of falcon should be called his swift messenger.(1284) Thus also the tragedians frequently represented Apollo, in his character of a destroyer, under the title of Lyceus.(1285) We are not, however, to suppose that it was this character of Apollo as a destroying power which gave a name, not only to innumerable temples, but even to whole countries; such a supposition would, contrary to history and analogy, make the early state of this religion to have been one of the grossest barbarism and superstition. It is far more probable that the name Lyceus is connected with the ancient primitive word _lux_ (whence λευκός). The Greek word λύκη is preserved most distinctly in λυκάβας, _i.e._ _course of the light_;(1286) and by the epithet Λυκηγένης, applied to Apollo by Homer,(1287) and probably taken from some ancient hymns, we should (from the idiom of the Greek language) rather understand _one born of light_, than _the Lycian god_. That light and splendour are frequently employed, both in the symbols of worship and language of the poets, to express the attributes of Apollo, cannot be denied;(1288) and we only remind the reader of the belief that the fire which burnt on the altar of Apollo Lyceus at Argos had originally fallen from heaven:(1289) and thus the epithet Lyceus would seem to belong to the same class as _Ægletes_, _Phœbus_, and _Xanthus_.(1290) It is not to be supposed that the wolf was made use of as a symbol of Apollo merely from an accidental similarity of name; but it is difficult to discover what analogy even the lively imagination of the Greeks could have found between the wolf and light. At a later period it was attempted to explain this symbol by the circumstance that all wolves produced their young within twelve days in the year, the precise time during which Latona was wandering as a she-wolf from the Hyperboreans to Delos.(1291) This physical interpretation was, however, grounded on the fable, and not the fable on it. Perhaps the sharp sight of the wolf(1292) (if we can trust the accounts of the ancients), or even the bright colour of the animal, may afford a better explanation.(1293)