Hippocampus (mythology) Poseidon (or Roman Neptune) often drives a sea-chariot drawn by hippocampi. Thus hippocampi sport with this god in both ancient depictions and much more modern ones, such as in the waters of the 18th-century Trevi Fountain in Rome surveyed by Neptune from his niche above. The appearance of hippocampi in both freshwater and saltwater is counter-intuitive to a modern audience, though not to an ancient one. The Greek picture of the natural hydrological cycle did not take into account the condensation of atmospheric water as rain to replenish the water table, but imagined the waters of the sea oozing back
She-wolf (Roman mythology) that the wolf held a special place in the world of the ancient inhabitants of Italy. One legend claims that the Hirpini people were so-called because, when they set out to found their first colony, they were led to its location by a wolf (from the Sabine word for wolf: "hirpus"). The tale of the Lupercal is central to that of the twins, and probably predates theirs. To the Roman god Mars the wolf is a sacred animal. There is an ongoing debate about a connection to the ancient Roman festival of the Lupercalia. In Greek mythology, Apollo's mother Leto