SECTION XII.

THE LION AND THE UNICORN.

Subsection 1. The Solar Lion.

THAT the Lion is a symbol of the Sun, and more particularly of the diurnal Sun, is a fact familiar to the mythologist, and one which has already been illustrated in the preceding pages;1 but a few further instances may suitably here be added.

In the Kamic Hymn to Ra-Har-em-akhu,2 the diurnal sun on the horizon, we read ;— Thou roarest in smiting thy foes,' the terrible roaring of flame being a link between the sun and the lion, as an Akkadian Hymn-writer says of Nindara, 'Lord-of-thedarkness,' i.e., the Nocturnal-sun, Thou, during thy action, roarest,'4 and as a Vedic Hymn-writer says of Agni (Ignis) that he roars like a lion.'5

In the Inscription of Daryavush I. at El-Khargeh, the oasis of Ammon in the Libyan desert, the great god Amen-Ra, the Invisible-god revealed in the Sungod, is addressed as the Lion of the double lions.'

1 Vide sec. III. Nos. XXIII. XXV.; sec. XI.

3

2 Gk. IIarmachis.

Ap. Prof. Lushington in R. P. viii. 134. So the Sun is said to 'give blasts of flame from his mouth' (F. R. cap. xvii). 4 Ap. Lenormant, Chaldean Magic, 176.

Rig-Veda, III. ii. 11.

These two lions, two brothers,' the two Lion-gods,' are two solar phases as diurnal and nocturnal, Har and Set, Shu and Tefnut; 2 and as there is but one solar orb, so he is the Lion of the double lions.'

In the Funereal Ritual the Osirian, or Soul seeking divine union and communion with the Sun-god, prays;

'Let me not be surpassed by the Lion-god :

Oh, the Lion of the Sun, who lifts his arm in the hill'3 [of heaven].

And exclaims;

'I am the Lions. I am the Sun.

The white lion is the phallus of the Sun.'4

A remarkable amulet of the Helleniko-Kamic period, copied by Caylus,5 illustrates the occult expression 'phallus of the sun,' and also shows the solar-leonine connexion. In the centre of a circle is a closed human eye, surrounded by various animals and representations all turned toward sit, and placed in the following order :-On the right hand or eastern side, a cock, a serpent, and a goose; on the north, a lizard and a thunderbolt; on the west, a scorpion and a phallus; and on the south, a lion and a dog. Caylus remarks feebly that 'Superstition is infinitely varied in its details,' but makes no attempt to explain the

1 Vide F. R., cap. xvii. 2 Vide Pierret, Le Panthéon Egyptien, 86. 3 Cap. lxiv., one of the oldest chapters of the Ritual.

4 F. R., cap. xvii. The expression shows the Sun regarded as the principle of life and renewal.

5 Recueil d'Antiquités, vol. vi. pl. xxxviii. fig. 3.

design; and indeed the combination is elaborate and extensive, and the design inexplicable when solely regarded either on Kamic or Hellenik principles. The single central eye is closed to show that the Sun of the Underworld is indicated, and the Lion, type of the diurnal Sun, is placed in the lower part of the design to show that the flaming sun of day has sunk beneath the horizon. By the leonine sun, is his ally the raging Dog-star, Set-Sothis, Kuôn-Seirios, Sirius, the Scorching.' Conversely, the Lizard, emblem of the moisture and dews of night, and as such slain by the Hellenik Sun-god Apollôn Sauroktonos,1 is placed in the north, that is in the height of the nocturnal heaven. The Thunderbolt, which comes from the sky, also appears high in heaven. To the east, his head close on the horizon-line, stands the Cock, the solar bird of day; immediately above him and due east is the Serpent-of-light, a solar creature in Kamic symbolism and the creeping dawn-gleam in Hellenik. Above the Serpent is the Goose volant, its neck stretched towards the sun and flying from east to west. It represents the Soul of the Osirian which is said to 'cackle like a goose,' 2 to fly, and to 'alight on the road of the west of the horizon,' flying towards the Sun-god Uasar-Osiris. Near the western horizon ready to seize the sinking sun is his Scorpiondaughter the Darkness.3 The Phallus, placed below

'Similarly, as Apollôn Smintheus, he slays the Mouse (Sk. mush, Gk. and Lat. mus, i.e., 'Thief') of darkness.

2 F. R., cap. xvii.

3 Vide sec. III., No. XVII.

G

the horizon, illustrates the secret power of the sun in the renewal of the face of the world, and is winged in order to identify it with the solar orb.

According to M. Paul Pierret (whose opinion on the matter I do not dispute), the leonto-kephalic Kamic goddesses represent the power of the solar eyes.1

The solar Dionysos, as Pater Bromius, the Roarer,' sometimes appears as leonto-kephalic in Mithraic and Gnostic symbols; 2 and in the Bakchai of Euripides the Chorus call upon him to put forth his dreadful might and to appear as a 'flaming lion' (πυριφλέγων λέων).

The river Nile was regarded as an emanation from the kosmic Sun-god Osiris, and hence is called by Homer Diipetes,5 Sky-fallen,' as descended from the solar Lion. Hence the usual type of leonto-kephalic fountain-pipes, an idea which does not merely depend on the Sun being in Leo at the time of the inundation, for the zodiacal Leo is not an archaic Kamic constellation, and still less on the alleged contemporaneous appearance of lions in the country. Mr. King mentions an Etruscan example which shows ‘figures in regular Babylonian costume, worshipping before a fountain discharging itself out of a colossal

1 Essai sur la Mythologie Egyptienne, 1879, p. 77; vide also Grébaut, Des deux yeux du Disque Solaire.

2 Vide King, The Gnostics, 54, 101; R. B. Jr., G. D. M. ii. 62.

3

Bakchai, 1078.

4 Neîdov 'Oripidos àñoppóŋv (Plutarch, Peri Is. xxxviii.).

5 Od. iv. 477.

lion's head into a basin, a palm tree in the midst.'1 Fipeke is the name of an Etruscan lion-headed monster, with water flowing from his mouth.'2 He is said to have been combated by Herakles, perhaps as a rival sun-god. The Lion-sun draws up the waters of the earth and sends them down again.

The Lion and Sun form the familiar national standard of Persia, and a Persian coin given by Tavernier shows the sun horned and radiate rising over the back of a lion. In the later period of the solar Mithras-cult the superior officials were styled Lions; hence the rites themselves are often designated as Leontica.'4

The leonto-kephalic Serpent radiate is a familiar design in Gnostic and other gems which form that large division classed by Montfaucon under the heading Abraxas. Sometimes seven stars, sometimes the sun and moon are in the field. The head often has seven rays. The Lion is occasionally shown in full; one example gives the eight-rayed solar star beneath him, and the crescent-moon high in heaven.

Another interesting example of the Lion-sun is shown on a gem which represents the Lion, over whom is the eight-rayed solar star, swallowing headfirst a large bee. The Bee is a creature especially connected with the happy and peaceful earth-life of growth and increase, and so finds a prominent place

1 A. G. R. i. 168, note.

2 Prof. Sayce in Cooper's Archaic Dict. In voc.

3 Travels in Persia, i. 50.

4 King, The Gnostics, 59.

5 Montfaucon, vol. ii. pt. ii. pl. cxlix. fig. 1. • Ibid., pl. cxlviii. fig. 5.