Dublin Core
Title
Lion
Identifier
215
Symbol Item Type Metadata
Symbol name
Lion
Symbol Description
For some printers, a punning reference to the town of Lyon.
A solar symbol, King of Beasts, represents courage, supremacy and majesty. Although a male symbol of hostile strength, also pulls the chariot of the Magna Mater, Cybele. Often linked with the desert landscape. In Egypt, it used to be believed that the lion presided over the annual floods of the Nile, because they coincided with the entry of the sun into the zodiacal sign of Leo. The equation of the sun and the lion persisted into the Middle Ages and Christian symbolism. In alchemy, it corresponds to the fixedelementto sulphur, while gold is given the name of lion of metals.Symbolizes the earthly opponent of the eagle in the sky and the natural lord and masterȊor the possessor of strength and of the masculine principle. The location or the context in which the lion appears is important. The young lion corresponds to the rising sun, the old lion to the setting sun. The lion victorious represents the exaltation of virility; the lion tamed carries, on the symbolic plane, the obvious significance which it has in real life (50). For Jung, the lion, in its wild state, is broadly speaking an index of latent passions.
A solar symbol, King of Beasts, represents courage, supremacy and majesty. Although a male symbol of hostile strength, also pulls the chariot of the Magna Mater, Cybele. Often linked with the desert landscape. In Egypt, it used to be believed that the lion presided over the annual floods of the Nile, because they coincided with the entry of the sun into the zodiacal sign of Leo. The equation of the sun and the lion persisted into the Middle Ages and Christian symbolism. In alchemy, it corresponds to the fixedelementto sulphur, while gold is given the name of lion of metals.Symbolizes the earthly opponent of the eagle in the sky and the natural lord and masterȊor the possessor of strength and of the masculine principle. The location or the context in which the lion appears is important. The young lion corresponds to the rising sun, the old lion to the setting sun. The lion victorious represents the exaltation of virility; the lion tamed carries, on the symbolic plane, the obvious significance which it has in real life (50). For Jung, the lion, in its wild state, is broadly speaking an index of latent passions.
Sources
Cirlot, p. 190