Caput Lupi Defero

These Eastern European ladies are celebrating Christmas with a wolf’s head (caput lupi) rather than the traditional boar’s head (caput apri) of the carol. I suspect that as Count Dracula is absent, the vampiresses are enjoying themselves in their own way.

The disease ‘lupus’ used to be diagnosed from apparent wolf-bite marks on the face and was often tubercular in origin, but now the term is used to refer to the autoimmune condition ‘systemic lupus erythematosus’. The typical rash on the cheeks is usually likened to the shape of a butterfly, but has also been compared with a bat.