Lion (heraldry)
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The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolizes bravery, valor, strength, and royalty, since it is traditionally regarded as the king of beasts.
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[edit] Positions
The following table summarizes the positions of a heraldic beast.
| Position | Description |
|---|---|
| rampant | body roughly vertical, forepaws raised to strike (or to display the claws to best advantage). The position of the hind legs varies according to local custom: the lion may stand on both hind legs, braced wide apart, or on only one, with the other also raised to strike. The word rampant is often omitted, especially in early blazon, as this is the most usual position of a carnivorous quadruped. |
| passant | walking, with the right forepaw raised. |
| statant | standing, all four feet on the ground. This posture is more frequent in crests than in shields. |
| sejant | sitting on his haunches, forepaws on the ground. |
| sejant erect | the same, but with forepaws in "rampant" position. |
| salient | leaping, with hindlegs together and forelegs together. |
| couchant | lying down, head raised. Rare. |
| dormant | lying down, head lowered. Even more rare, partly because most of the distinctive details of the lion's outline are obscured. |
The lion's head is normally seen in profile. If he faces the viewer he is gardant (or guardant), and if he looks back over his shoulder he is regardant. These adjectives follow any other adjectives of position.
The lions in the coat of arms of England are passant gardant. In French blazon this charge is called a léopard; a lion rampant gardant is a léopard lionné; and a lion passant with his head in profile is a lion léopardé. The position of the head thus determines his species. This practice leads some people to insist bitterly that the beasts in the royal arms of England are leopards, not lions. There is no right answer to this question.
A lion (or other beast) coward has his tail between his legs. His tail may also be forked (queue fourchée) or doubled (double-queued); in the arms of the kingdom of Bohemia, the forked tail was originally an artist's flourish, but later became a distinctive and essential detail.
[edit] History
The lion has been represented figuratively since the Stone Age. Ice age hunters depicted the lion this way in the cultural stage of the Aurignacian more than 30,000 years ago. The characteristic of the lion as the "king of the jungle" goes back to the influence of The Physiologus, an early Christian book about animal symbolism which spread into many cultures and generally had great influence in Western culture. The royal symbolism of the lion was repeatedly taken up in history, in order to claim power, for example by Henry the Lion. The ongoing fascination is apparent today by the diversity of coats of arms on which the lion is shown in various colors and forms (see below).
In antiquity, the lion was common in the entire Mediterranean area. According to the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, the Israelite Tribe of Judah had the Lion of Judah as its symbol. In Greek mythology the lion appears in a variety of functions. The Nemean Lion was represented as a people-eating beast; killing it was one of the twelve tasks assigned to Heracles. In the story of Androcles, one of Aesop's fables, the hero, a run-away slave, pulls a thorn from a lion's paw; when he is later thrown to the lions as punishment for escaping, the lion recognizes him once again and refuses to kill the man. The lion also plays a role in numerous other antique cultures. In Egypt the pharaoh was represented as the sphinx, a lion with a human head. The best known representation of this type is the Great Sphinx of Giza. The Egyptian mythology also recalls Dedun, the Egyptian god of wealth.
The image of lion appears on many flags, coats of arms and emblems. For example, it symbolises the Sinhala people (Sinhalese Singha = Lion). Local folklore tells of Prince Vijaya, the first of the Sinhalese kings, as being the son of Sinhabahu, who was fathered by a lion. See history of Sri Lanka. Lions are recurring symbols in the coat of arms of royalty and chivalry, particularly in the UK, where the lion is also a national symbol of the British people, and in Ethiopia, where it is a symbol of the Monarchy.
[edit] Examples of lions in coats of arms
[edit] Lions rampant
 Coat of arms of the Czech Republic, with the double-tailed lion of the former kingdom of Bohemia |
 Lion canting for the Kingdom of León (Spain) |
 Lion supporters in the arms of Calderdale (England) |
 Coat of arms of Bulgaria |
 Coat of arms of Luxembourg |
 Coat of arms of Norway |
 Lion supporters in the arms of Prague (Czech Republic) |
 The Lion of Judah on the municipal emblem of Jerusalem (Israel) |
 The Coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands |
[edit] Lions passant
 Arms of the former duchy of Aquitaine (France) |
[edit] Other traditions
 Emblem of India |
 Lion on the coat of arms of Sri Lanka |
