A Land of Lions

 A Land of Lions

The first time I walked up the ramp at the citadel of Mycenae and approached the Lion Gate, my heart was beating so loudly in my chest that I was certain I could hear it reverberating off the Cyclopean walls on each side of me. My companions said that the look on my face was that of a man who was fulfilling a lifelong ambition. That was indeed the case and the feeling was only a little less intense the second time that I walked the same route two years later. I think that only a true Classicist could understand the emotion. By the same token, I admit freely that I wept the first time that I saw the Acropolis and the Parthenon, and that I still get a tear in my eye every time that I see them. That first time in Mycenae, the Lion Gate loomed before me and that memory will stay with me forever.

The ten foot square Lion Gate, created around 1250 BCE, forms the entrance to the Bronze Age citadel and the lion statue above the doorway is the sole surviving piece of Mycenaean sculpture there, as well as being the largest surviving sculpture of this period in the Aegean. The statue features two lions or lionesses facing each other, standing in a heraldic pose on their hind legs with their forepaws resting on a small altar with a pillar rising between the pair. It is thought that a statue of a god or goddess was situated atop the pillar, perhaps being one of Hera, for lions were one of her symbols. The heads of the lions were fashioned separately and are missing. Lions were symbols of royalty and power in ancient Greece and finding them portrayed in such a manner at the entrance gate of a powerful kingdom like Mycenae comes as no surprise.

Mycenae was home to King Agamemnon, Wanax or King of Kings, and leader of the Achaean forces in Troy, brother of Menelaus of Sparta, brother-in-law of Helen of Troy, and husband of Clytemnestra. He was an important man, and how does Homer picture him dressed?

So he got up and put his tunic on his breast and put his fine sandals on his well-oiled feet and then put on a cloak made from the tawny skin of a lion that reached down to his feet and in his hand he grasped his spear.

Several heroes were called bold-spirited and lion-hearted by Homer, and among them was Diomedes the leader of the Argives, son of King Tydeus and as such of royal lineage. He was the only other person in the Iliad, other than Agamemnon. who was depicted as wearing a lion skin. Only powerful royals dressed this way in ancient Greece.

So he spoke and Diomedes put on his shoulders the skin of a lion, shiny and large enough to reach down to his feet and in his hand he grasped his spear and then went on his way.

Lions played quite a prominent role in Greek mythology. The legendary chimera was a fire-breathing monster typically depicted as a lion with a goat’s head on its back and a snake for its tail. The most notable lion story in Greek mythology is that of Heracles whose first labour was the slaying of the Nemean lion. After he had killed the lion, its hide became his armour. Lions were also frequently featured in art and literature in the ancient world. For example, on the shield of Achilles, Homer tells us that there was a scene which depicted dogs fighting two lions which were attacking a bull.

Two dreadful lions were out in front of the cattle holding a loud-bellowing bull and it cried aloud and the dogs and the youths chased after it. The two lions had rent the skin of the bull and were gulping down its innards and its black blood while the herdsmen tried vainly to chase them away and to encourage the swift-footed dogs. They failed to attack the lions and instead just stood nearby and barked loudly.

            Lions certainly existed in ancient Greece, especially in the southeastern part of the European continent. Images of lions are frequently found on pottery, daggers, mosaics and temple pediments. The Terrace of the Lions at the sanctuary of Delos featured a row of sixteen marble lions that acted as guardians of the sacred site. Lions likely became almost extinct during the classical period around 100-200 BCE, with the last reported sighting having occurred near the Neestos River in Thrace in the 2^nd century AD. Their population was probably over-exploited through hunting for sport, and for the provision of beasts for entertainment purposes. Conflicts with humans who were determined to protect their livestock from attacks and the loss of habitat through the spread of civilization also led to their demise. Homer distinguishes between European lions that were a subspecies of the Asiatic lion with which we are familiar, those that he typically refers to as well-maned, as opposed to mountain lions that we would normally refer to as panthers.

            The best indication that we have that lions were common in ancient Greece comes from the writings of Homer and in particular, the manner in which he often featured lions in his poetic similes. The Homeric simile, also known as an epic simile, is a literary device often used by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. A simile is an extended, elaborate poetic comparison, usually running for several lines, that uses vivid imagery to link a character's actions or a narrative event to something from nature or daily life that is familiar to the audience or listener. The purpose of a simile is to enhance the reader's understanding and appreciation of the narrative, by linking the unknown or the unusual to something well known or more commonplace. Homer also uses the simile to glorify a character or to call attention to them, or to heighten the intensity or importance of an event. A simile provides a way for the narrator to talk directly to the audience and to pause for a moment to build understanding while the action is taking place, but in order to be effective, the simile must draw its comparison to something that the listener knows and fully understands.

            There are more Homeric similes that use lions as their basis of comparison than any other animals in the two epics. This leads me to assume that the average Greek person who was a member of Homer’s audience and who sat listening to the bard sing, knew all about lions and would have come into contact with the beast often enough to be able to relate to the comparisons presented in the poet’s verses. The local goatherd and his wife might never have seen a warrior armoured for battle and striding in his rage toward his enemy, but must certainly have been familiar with seeing their livestock savagely attacked by a wild beast and hence could identify with the scene.

But when the war-loving Menelaus saw him striding along in front of the troops, he was as pleased as a hungry lion that comes across the large carcass of either a horned stag or a wild goat which he devours voraciously, even if vigorous young men and swift dogs are pursuing him. Such as this was Menelaus delighted to espy the godlike Alexander, for he was determined in his mind to seek revenge on the evil-doer.

In the same way, Diomedes is compared to a lion attacking a flock of sheep, no doubt a common occurrence in the Achaean countryside.

Then once more the son of Tydeus went to fight in the forefront of the battle, being highly eager to wage war with the Trojans. Three times as much spirit spurred him on, as is a lion which a shepherd in the field has wounded but not killed near his fleecy sheep after it has leaped over the enclosure and he has only aroused its fury. The shepherd does not help his flock but rather goes back to the sheepfold and the flock scatters panic-stricken into the field and huddle together and the lion, pressing them on, leaps upon them from the enclosure. And in this same way, the mighty Diomedes was eager to mix it up with the Trojans.

            Homer is wont to compare the savagery of warriors on both sides of the conflict with the savagery displayed by lions that are on the hunt. His imagery is gruesome and no doubt it had a profound effect on his audience as they listened to tales of warriors attacking their foes like lions devouring raw meat.

They both drew out the spears with their hands and rushed at each other like flesh-eating lions or wild boars whose strength is not easily exhausted.

Sarpedon held his shield in front of him and brandished two spears and walked forward like a mountain-bred lion long in need of meat and his heroic spirit urged him to attempt to get near the well-protected sheepfold and make an attack upon the flock. Yet even though he finds there the shepherds with dogs and spears keeping watch over the sheep, he is still not dissuaded from making an attempt and he either leaps upon them and snatches one away or else he is smitten himself by one of the foremost warriors who throws a spear from his steady hand.

            There are any number of similes in the Iliad that depict lions hunting or being hunted, attacking or being attacked. They are all violent and gruesome and serve to underscore the brutality and savagery of war. Some scholars, myself included, have taken the position that the Iliad was not a poem that glorified war, but was in effect an anti-war poem. I am reminded of those great poets of the First World War who struggled to have their message understood that war was the ultimate evil. In the words of Wilfred Owen (1893-1918),

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory

The old lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

            Homer also presents lions to his listeners in a softer or gentler light at times. An example of this is his portrayal of a mother lion protecting her cubs from hunters. But in this particular case, the comparison to the mother lion was presented more as a way of showing the care that Aias took for his fallen comrade, rather than to stress the gentler side of the lioness.

Aias covered the son of Menoetius with his broad shield like a lion takes care of its young when confronted by hunters in the woods when it has its little ones with it.

In fact in another comparison, Homer made the point that lions raised with a mother’s love will still meet their doom if they eventually turn on men or their livestock.

But there the consummation of death overcame them both. They were like two lions that had been raised by their mother in the thicket of deep woods on a mountain top, who then seize bullocks and large fattened sheep and destroy the farmsteads of men and are in turn killed by the sharp bronze held in the hands of those men. In the same manner they were both overcome by the hands of Aeneas and fell like lofty pine trees.

            Homer tells us that lions were savage, violent, relentless, strong, warlike and heroic. It is no small wonder that he used the beast as the basis for his comparisons to the qualities and the actions of the warriors whom he described. Through his use of his dramatic similes, he was able to bring alive the ferocity of the Achaean and Trojan combatants in the minds of his listeners. The question before us is why would he do so? Obviously one answer would be that his depictions of lions in action made his works more entertaining and believable. But I think that there is more to it than that. The extensive use of lions in his symbolism was a way for Homer to tell his audience that when men went to war, they became savage beasts. The common thought was that man could achieve Kleos or immortal honour on the battlefield and that as a result, war could be considered a good thing, because it provided such an opportunity for heroes. But if we view the Iliad as an anti-war poem, then those lions on the battlefield are no better than the Cyclops Polyphemus who, in the Odyssey, devoured men like a mountain-bred lion.

So I spoke and from his pitiless heart he made no answer, but he jumped up and made a grab for my companions with his hands and he snatched two of them and smashed them to the ground like young puppies and their brains gushed forth onto the ground and wetted the earth. Then he tore them limb from limb and made his supper of them and devoured them like a mountain-bred lion and did not leave anything, eating the innards, the flesh and the bones full of marrow.