Another dip into the Bestiary: The Lion

Another day of interminable rain; just the day for another dip into Aberdeen University's Bestiary which  written and illuminated in England around the year 1200 AD. This is what it has to say about the lion.
 
"Here begins the book of the nature of beasts. Of lions, panthers and tigers, wolves and foxes, dogs and apes. The lion is the mightiest of the beasts; he will quail at the approach of none.
The name 'beast' applies, strictly speaking, to lions, panthers and tigers, wolves and foxes, dogs and apes, and to all other animals which vent their rage with tooth or claw - except snakes. They are called 'beasts' from the force with which they rage. They are called 'wild' because they enjoy their natural liberty and are borne along by their desires. They are free of will, and wander here and there, and where their instinct takes them, there they are borne.
Lions mate face to face; and not only lions, but lynxes, and camels, and elephants, and rhinoceroses, and tigers. Lionesses, when they first give birth, bear five cubs. A characteristic of the lion is that when a lioness gives birth to her cubs, she produces them dead and watches over them for three days, until their father comes on the third day and breathes into their faces and restores them to life. Thus the Almighty Father awakened our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead on the third day; as Jacob says: 'He will fall asleep as a lion, and as a lion's whelp he will be revived'. "
 

This particular lion is older, much, much older than the Bestiary. It stands near to the entrance to the Neo-Hittite temple of Ishtar at Ain Dara in northern Syria, near to the Turkish border. The basalt temple sits on top of a mighty tell rising over 30 metres above the plain below. This huge monumental lion was hewn out of the solid basalt over 3500 years ago. The extra photograph shows the whole lion. I do hope that it is still standing safe and proud despite the appalling damage being done to the people and heritage of Syria.