Proud Lion on a Rock

About this drawing

A proud lion has been the favorite image of kings, gods and warriors for thousands of years, to the point that we call it the king of beasts without a second thought. Few animals have taken up so much room in the human imagination.

In ancient Egypt, the goddess Sekhmet had the head of a lioness and stood for both war and healing, while the Great Sphinx of Giza pairs a lion's body with a human face. Assyrian kings in Mesopotamia had themselves shown hunting lions as proof of their power, and Babylon's Ishtar Gate was decorated with rows of them.

Greek mythology gave the lion a starring role too. The first labor of Heracles was to defeat the Nemean lion, whose hide no weapon could pierce, and the hero often appears wearing its skin. In India, Emperor Ashoka raised a pillar topped with lions, and that design now appears in the country's national emblem.

In medieval Europe, the lion became one of the most common figures in heraldry, tied to courage and nobility. That's why it still turns up on so many shields, flags and city crests today, often in places where no wild lion has lived in recorded history.

• lion
• symbols
• history
• mythology
• heraldry