If you’re unfamiliar with the tale of Rome’s beginnings, it’s a powerful story with an underlying matriarchal theme. The legend is that Rhea Silva, a Vestal Virgin birthed twin sons named Romulus and Remus, and was soon forced to abandon them due to threats against their lives.

Intercepted from the Tiber river by the god Tiberius, the twins were saved as they nursed from the she-wolf Lupercal. Some 3,000 years later, and Italian society is still suckling from the teet of women’s accomplishments.