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# 78 APRIL 18 , 2016
children: the wolf becomes, de facto, the icon of
fear.
The first official literary
reference mentioning the
“mouth of the wolf” as
frightening is a piece by
Guittone d’ Arezzo (1294),
saying: “Ma la povera
femmina, accostandosi a
quell’huomo, si accorse
d’essere andáta in bocca
al lupo” (getting close to
that man, the poor woman
realized she [suddenly]
was in the wolf’s mouth).
The “wolf’s mouth” metaphorically signifies the
enemy, the bad luck, and
the evil eye, assuming,
also, some nuanced erotic connotations, which
can be found also in other
languages. Se précipiter
dans la gueule du loup,
which in French means “to
fall in the wolf’s mouth”;
ein Wolf im Schafspelz,
meaning “wolf in lamb’s
look” in German, but also
the Polish ezxpression nie
wywołuj wilka z lasu, meaning “do not call the wolf
from the forest”, ergo: “do
not call/desire the bad
luck!”.
The wishes having the
wolf as a bad, frightening
26 | WE THE ITALIANS
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