Long Live the King

On By Anita GuerriniIn Animals, Berlin, History, natural history
Louis XIV as Alexander the Great, Versailles
Louis XIV as Alexander the Great, Versailles

21 September 2014, Berlin

Louis XIV, who saw himself as the new Alexander the Great, adopted the lion as one of his symbols. Although he didn’t wear a lion skin on his head like Alexander, real and imaginary lions surrounded him.

Headpiece, Memoires pour servir a l'histoire naturelle des animaux, 1671
Headpiece, Memoires pour servir a l’histoire naturelle des animaux, 1671
PM-Distribution_Map-Barbary_Lion
Historic distribution of Barbary and Asian Lions. Map by Peter Maas, http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/barbarylion.htm

The lion long pre-dated Alexander as a symbol of power and majesty. On visits to two of Berlin’s many wonderful museums, I recorded just a few examples of the many appearances of the king of beasts in antiquity.  We think of lions as animals of sub-Saharan Africa.  But two sub-species of lions existed outside that region: the Barbary lion of North Africa (Panthera leo leo),

Barbary Lion 1893
Barbary Lion 1893

now extinct in the wild, and the Asian lion (Panthera leo persica), with perhaps 250 individuals now living in India.   These are the animals we see represented in antiquity.

Scene from the Pergamon Altar, 2nd century BCE, Pergamon Museum
Scene from the Pergamon Altar, 2nd century BCE
Assyrian lion gate
Assyrian lion gate, Pergamon Museum
Ishtar Gate, ca 575 BCE
Ishtar Gate, ca 575 BCE, Pergamon Museum
Lionhead gargoyle, Miletus, 2nd century
Lionhead gargoyle, Miletus, 2nd century, Pergamon Museum
Roman sarcophagus, 300 CE, Neues Museum
Roman sarcophagus, 300 CE, Neues Museum
Architrave with two lion gods and Amon as a ram, Egypt, 200 BCE, Neues Museum
Architrave with two lion gods and Amon as a ram, Egypt, 200 BCE, Neues Museum