Leo

History of the symbol

The adoption of this animal's form for the zodiac sign has been attributed to the fact that when the Sun was among its stars in midsummer the lions of the desert left their accustomed haunts for the banks of the Nile, where they could find relief from the heat in the waters of the inundation. Pliny wrote that the Egyptians worshipped the stars of Leo because the rise of their great river was coincident with the Sun's entrance among them. For the same reason the Sphinx is said to have been sculptured with Leo's body and the head of the adjacent Virgo, although Egyptologists maintain that this head represented one of the early kings, or the god Harmachis.

Related Topics:
Nile - Inundation - Pliny - Sphinx - Virgo - Harmachis

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Distinct reference is made to Leo in an inscription of the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes, which, like the Nile temples generally, was adorned with the animal's bristles, while on the planisphere of Dendera its figure is shown standing on an outstretched serpent. The Egyptian stellar Lion, however, comprised only a part of ours, and in the earliest records some of its stars were shown as a knife, as they now are as a sickle. Kircher gave its title there as Πιμεντεκεων, Cubitus Nili.

Related Topics:
Ramesseum - Thebes - Dendera - Kircher

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The astrological symbol has been supposed to portray the animal's mane, but it also might be the animal's tail. Gaius Julius Hyginus's writing published in 1488 and Albumasar's in 1489 showing this latter member of extraordinary length, twisting between the hind legs and over the back, Hygnus's manuscript properly locating the star Denebola in the end. But the International Dictionary says that this symbol is a corruption of the initial letter of Λεων (Leon). Lajard's Cultes de Mithra mentions the hieroglyph of Leo as among the symbols of Mithraic worship, but how their Lion agreed, if at all, with ours is not known.

Related Topics:
Gaius Julius Hyginus - 1488 - Albumasar - 1489 - Denebola - Lajard - Mithraic worship

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