As the sun moves-on—next week into Virgo—we have a final chance to showcase a few more Leos in art.
Lions have been portrayed in some of the oldest artwork known to historians. For years, the oldest were the Cave Paintings of Lascaux, France (15,000 years old) which depict a pair of lions mating. Since then, two other sites have been discovered, both estimated to be 32,000 years old. The first is the Chauvet Cave in Southern France, in which a pride of lionesses is shown on a group hunt (much as lionesses do today). The second example is an ivory carving found in the Vogelherd Cave in Southwest Germany.
Later, the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Assyrians, Persians—and others throughout North Africa and the Middle East—showed lions, often as royalty or protecting royalty. Biblical references abound, as well, from the Old Testament (“The Lion of Judah” or “Daniel in the Lion’s Den”) to the New Testament (Timothy, Revelations).
The photo above—poorly shot, into the sun—shows The Sphinx (at Giza, Egypt) which I photographed earlier this summer. With a human head and a lion’s body, he was built more than 2500 years BC to stand guard over the pyramid-tombs of the Pharaoh. He is the oldest-known mammoth sculpture.
More in days to come.