She-wolves, in figurative language, are usually human females. Whether fictional or historical, powerful women have long been described with this animal name to suggest their political ambition, sexual insatiability, maternal obsessions, or illicit desires: Marie Antoinette, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Reynard's Hersent, Masuccio's unnamed lady, De Sade's Madame Saint Ange, and Verga's Pina (see Chapters 5 and 6) are some examples of this metaphorical practice. The she-wolf's voracious hunger, in misogynous discourse, can have a variety of objects – primarily politics, sex, and motherhood. Revenge is one of its motivating forces. One such human she-wolf, maternal and vengeful, appears in Victor Hugo's acclaimed 1831 novel, Notre-Dame de Paris. This wolfish woman is a walled-up recluse who rejoices at the news that a gypsy woman has been executed because gypsies had long ago abducted her only daughter. Her fierce motherhood mixes with a blind hunger for revenge, turning the recluse into the caged beast that best embodies such characteristics: “And she began pacing up and down before the bars of her window, disheveled, eyes blazing, banging her shoulder against the wall, with the wild look of a caged she-wolf which has long been hungry and feels feeding time draw near” (360). I describe Victor Hugo's recluse as a way to introduce Rome's own caged she-wolves: Unlike their Parisian counterparts, Rome's captives were not only allegorical animals but also flesh and blood.