From the Capitoline She-Wolf to the She-Wolf of the Wusun: Differences in Narrative Structures of the "Wolf Raising Human Infants" Legend between China and the West from the Perspective of Mutual Learning among Civilizations
Abstract
The stories of wolves raising babies in ancient Rome and the Wusun Kingdom have the same theme, but they show big differences in story structure and cultural role. The Roman story is a clear origin story. It has developed step by step over many years. It first came from local old religious beliefs, then mixed with Latin culture, and finally became a sign of the emperor's rule. The Wusun story is about rebuilding their own country. In this story, the mother wolf is just a witness of the god's will, and her role is to help rebuild the country's power. The written form of this story was also rewritten by people in the Han Dynasty, and it carries strong Confucian ideas about the god's will for rulers. These two stories show that when different cultures communicate with each other, the story structure of the same myth theme will be changed by the history and cultural needs of different civilizations. This creates origin stories with very different roles, and shows the different ways each culture builds its own identity.
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