THE LION'S HEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14465, 3 September 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE LION'S HEAD.

ORIGIN OF ITS USE AS A DECORATION. "Tub sin glows in tin; Lion," says Seneca, meaning that when the. sun outers the sign of Leo at the .summer solstice the highest temperature of the year is experienced. Wo may say, on the other hand, that the Babylonian astrologers thousands of years ago placed the king of beasts, the fiery and ferocious lion, in that part of the zodiac which the mux enters at tho stammer solstico. The constellation which is called Leo bears very little resemblance to the outline of a lion. Probably tho name was originally applied only "to its principal star. Regains. It is to this constellation in the zodiac that w-j owe the countless water-spewing lions' heads which are found in ancient and modern fountains, because in tho latter part of July, while the sun is still in the sign Leo, the Nile is at its highest level. Furthermore, the lion's head with widely-open jaws is in itself very suitable for the mouth of a fountain or waterspout. This decorative motif was employed universally throughout the Grseco-Roman world. Lions' heads re found used in this way afc Athens, Ephesus, Olympia, Agrigentum, and countless other places. It is not quite certain that this employment of the lion's head originated in E< T ypt. Curtius describes an Assyrian bas-relief from Bui ran showing water streaming from a ring-shaped vessel. A lion stands as if on guard on either side of the fountain. Tho water-clock, which was used in judicial proceedings, had the form of a lion, and a name which means the guardian of the stream. Hence the idea cf protection may have been the origin of the association of lions with fountains, and this custom may have originated in Asi,a^