Cultural depictions of lions

The earliest graphic representations feature lions as organized hunters with great strength, strategies, and skills.

[1][2] The zoomorphic Löwenmensch figurine from Hohlenstein-Stadel and the ivory carving of a lion's head from Vogelherd Cave in the Swabian Jura in southwestern Germany were carbon-dated 39,000 years old, dating from the Aurignacian culture.

The Egyptians held that this sacred lioness was responsible for the annual flooding of the Nile,[4] the most significant contributing factor to the success of the culture.

At that time Bast changed into the goddess of personal protection with different responsibilities, and often was depicted as a very tame lioness or a cat.

[6] Lions have been extensively used in ancient Persia as sculptures and on the walls of palaces, in fire temples, tombs, on dishes and jewellery; especially during the Achaemenid Empire.

[25] Lionesses often flanked the Gorgon, a vestige of the earliest Greek protective deity that often was featured atop temples of later eras.

[28] The Gaetulia lion appears in Odes of Horace (23 BC),[29] Pliny the Elder's Natural History (77 AD),[30] Philostratus's Life of Apollonius of Tyana (c. 215),[31] Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879).

[citation needed] A lesser known Biblical account features Samson who kills a lion with his bare hands, later sees bees nesting in its carcass, and poses a riddle based on this unusual incident to test the faithfulness of his fiancée (Judges 14).

[citation needed] The power and ferocity of the lion is invoked when describing the anger of God (Amos 3:4–8, Lam 3:10) and the menace of Israel's enemies (Psalm 17:12, Jer 2:30) and Satan (1 Pet 5:8).

The book of Isaiah uses the imagery of a lion laying with a calf and child, and eating straw to portray the harmony of creation (Isa 11:6–7).

In the Christian text Physiologus, lion cubs are said to be born stillborn and the mothers cares for them until the father returns on the third day to breathe life into them.

Subsequently, the lion proves to be a loyal companion and a symbol of knightly virtue, and helps Yvain complete his altruistic ventures.

[citation needed] In both Arab and Persian culture, the lion is regarded as a symbol of courage, bravery, royalty and chivalry.

[47][48] Animal motifs were also commonly used in stone-carved decoration in Anatolian Seljuk architecture (12th–13th centuries) and images of lions were favoured in this context.

[49][50] The lion symbolism and its cultural depictions can be found in Hindu and Buddhist art of India and Southeast Asia.

Neolithic cave paintings of lions were found in Bhimbetka rock shelters in central India, which are at least 30,000 years old.

[51] Narasimha ("man-lion") is described as the fourth incarnation (avatara) of the Hindu deity Vishnu in the Puranic texts of Hinduism, an anthropomorphic form assumed to slay a daitya (demon) named Hiranyakashipu.

The thrones of Buddha and Boddhisattva found in Kalasan and Mendut buddhist temples of ancient Java depicted elephant, lion, and makara.

Bakong, a stepped pyramid Hindu temple from earlier period also displays lion statues as guardians of each stage on each of the cardinal points.

Khmer lion guardian statues are commonly found in Angkor Wat, Bayon, Pre Rup and Srah Srang.

The Merlion also figures heavily in the official symbols of the Philippines as it was once an overseas possession of Spain; it appears on the coat-of-arms of Manila, as well as the emblems of the president, vice-president, and its navy.

[citation needed] The common motif of the "majestic and powerful" lion was introduced to China by Buddhist missionaries from India, somewhere in the first century AD.

The Chinese artistic form of the "dog-lion" (kara-shishi in Japanese) was almost always used, but was generally somewhat fatter, and with a shorter torso, than in China, with a short fan-like tail and a flattened face.

[60] Lions (獅子, shishi) feature prominently in many kabuki plays and other forms of Japanese legend and traditional tales.

[74][75][76] Various kings and political leaders in different cultures and times, famed for courage or fierceness, were entitled "the lion" – such as: During the Renaissance, animals, especially those close to man, were depicted with passion but also with scientific rigor.

However, exotic animals, which were difficult to observe, were in part imagined by the painter: La Chaste au tigre (The Tiger Hunt), a Baroque painting by Rubens depicting a hunt for big cats, including lions, is a work that was partly imagined by the painter; the composition of the picture, however, allowed realism to be breathed into these invented felines.

[82] The Romantic painter worked as much on anatomical accuracy, notably by practicing the representation of real subjects held in zoos, as on the desire to depict a sentimental animal, which drew the ridicule of classical-style artists.

[89] A rarer inn name is the White Lion, derived from Edward IV of England or the Duke of Norfolk.

[89] Though the lion appears on the coats of arms and flags of Lyon and León, the cities' names have an unrelated derivation despite the similarity.

For example, the arms of the Carter of Castle Martin family, Ireland (see Carter-Campbell of Possil) include a pair of rampant combatant lions.