Asiatic Lion - Data, Pictures & Videos

[brotherbear]

http://www.strangehistory.net/2013/06/29...pean-lion/  
 
... The Last European Lion June 29, 2013
 
The ancient Greeks were lion mad. Lions frequently appear in the lively similes of ‘Homer’. They appear in Greek art and in legends: at a guess Pausanias probably has a score of lion legends from around Greece. But can any of this be taken to prove that lions actually lived in ancient Greece or, indeed, in ancient Europe more generally? Take an example. Hercules is said to have killed a vicious lion at Nemea. This might be a confused memory of a lion that had killed many locals or it may be legendary fluff. More problematic in every way is the tale of a lion on the island of Kea (aka Ceos) and a famous statue of the same there: the lion drove some nymphs out, fairies and lions evidently not getting on (?). But was there really, in historic times, a lion on a Mediterranean island? It seems unlikely and the story probably arose to describe a local placename, Leon: placenames and the need to explain them are responsible for countless abuses of history. A nice parallel here about animal extinction and the historical imagination is the British bear. The British bear was probably destroyed in the early centuries A.D. but it features in the Celtic and Germanic naming traditions of the island right through the early Middle Ages to and beyond the eleventh century: i.e. men called Bear.

However, with Greek lions there are a couple of sources that give pause for thought and that prevent us from banishing the European lion prematurely. Take this passage from Herodotus describing the Persian descent towards Thermopylae and the three hundred there in 480 BC. Reply