This is an essay I wrote about my own appreciation of how the lioness has been perceived and represented, in comparison to the lion. Her notorious partner is seemingly made more of a fuss of than the poor lioness who ended up being relegated in his shadow... I wanted to study and analyze why, especially since it appears it hasn't always been the case. Thank you for reading.

The lion is among the most-represented animals in human culture, across Europe, Africa and Asia: the great beast is a universal symbol of strength, royalty, justice, vigilance, protection, pride and courage even in countries where it doesn't exist in the wild.
The lion's combination of ferocity and enormous strength didn't fail to appeal to patriarchal cultures and societies, being naturally sympathetic and attracted to violence as a way to gain status, power and material gain. The lion therefore came to embody virility. But what can be said of the lioness? Did she come to embody feminity in the same way as the lion came to embody manly virtues?

Smaller, slimmer and lacking a mane, less boisterous and spectacular than the lion, the lioness' plain coat adds to her apparent blandness. Truly the lioness is only seen as the lion's wife: she shares his status but little else, even if she embodies courage to the extent allowed by her motherhood. She is submissive to him and he drives her away from her kill. For cultures influenced by judeo-christian religions, the predominant and contradicting images of the virgin/mother on one side, and the harlot on the other, inflicted upon women was also mirrored on female animals: the king of the beasts’ wife, the lioness, came to embody maternal qualities and her courage could express itself in defending her cubs fiercely. But she was also said to be deceitful and adulterous and given to sexual escapades behind the back of her royal husband: the leopard was long thought to be the hybrid offspring of a lioness and an animal called the "pard". And according to Pliny the Elder (Natural History, Book 8, 30), the lioness could also mate with the hyena to produce a frightening but fictitious animal called the leucrota: the beast was imagined to be hoofed, possess powerful jaws and instead of teeth, have continuous ridges of bones capable of crushing anything. To get rid of the smell of her illicit matings and to complete the deception, the lioness was said to go and wash in the river.

It can be said that the image of the lioness has been manipulated to fit a particular vision of femalehood: while men could indulge in violent activities to show their valour and courage, women were kept in a more gentle and nurturing role or at least discouraged from displaying an openly violent behaviour: little girls who use brutal strength and physical violence in anger are scolded much more firmly by their parents than little boys, even nowadays. Women were praised in resorting to violence only when defending their families.
So the lioness came to embody feminity in a way that didn't threaten the status of the lion: she is indeed courageous and powerful but remains subservient to her husband and stands in his shadow. In other words, the model wife.

While the lioness became and is only seen now as the lion's consort, it wasn't so in the prehistoric and Ancient Worlds, where lions existed in the wild. Consequently, people had a first-hand knowledge of lions and knew more of their habits.

The lioness exemplified not only courage but also strength and fierceness at least on the same level as the lion, if not more so. She was given a warrior status because she was viewed as a more formidable hunter than the lion: presumably, she was a lot more often seen hunting than the lion. The physical and even athletic prowess resorted to by the lioness, especially when she brings down prey animals that are as large or larger than herself, must have made an impression on people in ancient times. As a mother and bringer of life, the lioness was the provider of meat and kept the pride fed, resorting to the same characteristic cunning, aggression and ferocity in doing so as the lion in his fights. It must also have been observed that the lion has to handle the lioness carefully during mating: the lion often has to retreat hurriedly when his female suddenly turns against him and attacks him. She is also more likely to attack anything or anybody, in particular when she feels her cubs are threatened. In this context, the lioness is considerably more aggressive and determined than the lion. Another aspect of lions which must have been appealing to man at the time is the fact lionesses cooperate in hunting and, otherwise, lead a social life, unique among cats. This didn't go unnoticed by prehistoric tribes of hunters-gatherers who left us a number of rock paintings and artefacts depicting lionesses. The Lion Lady, a 30,000 years old figure made of ivory and dicovered in the Stadel im Hohlenstein (Germany), blends the human and lion shape and is believed to be the oldest example of therianthropic sculpture known to this day. The sculpture is based on the cave lion, a colossal type of lion found in prehistoric Europe and which became extinct about 10,000 years ago. The actual gender of the figurine has been the object of some debates: it seems clear now from rock paintings found in the Chauvet Cave in Ardèche ( France) that male cave lions often didn't have a mane or only a ruff, unlike the abundant mane of their extant African cousins and that the figurine may well be a lion man instead of a lion woman. We may never know for certain.

Ancient Egyptians also considered the lioness as a force to fear, so mighty, violent and dangerous in fact that the "Eye of Ra" herself, the goddess Sekhmet, meaning "she who is powerful", was represented as a lioness-headed woman, not a lion-headed god. The hot desert wind was said to be her breath and she was also the mistress of diseases and pestilence. As well as a warrior goddess and a protector of the pharaoh, she was a retribution agent and came close to destroying mankind entirely if Ra himself hadn't intervene to stop her: she was made to drink large quantities of beer mixed with pomegranate juice, thinking it was blood and, simply collapsed drunk. Another warrior goddess present in the Egyptian pantheon was also depicted as a lioness-headed woman: Menhit, whose name means "she who massacres" is believed to have originated in Nubia but was eventually assimilated to the cult of Sekhmet in Upper Egypt.

Ancient Mesopotamia was also renowned for its depictions of composite creatures: one particular and quite charming artefact is of interest to the present article. Called the Guennol Lioness, this small statue (about 8cm high) and made from limestone, depicts a powerfully-built anthropomorphic lioness, looking over her left shoulder. While her arms and chest are heavily muscled, her hips and thighs are very curvy and unmistakably feminine. The Guennol Lioness is believed to have been made around 3000-2800 BC and very little is known of it. It may have been a lioness demon, an amulet worn to protects from evil spirits or more simply, from attacks by lions that were abundant in Mesopotamia at the time.

So why is the lion given more attention and status than the lioness in countries where this animal doesn't actually live? And, on the contrary, why was the lioness deified and given an even more prominent status over her male counterpart in the religions and cultures of peoples based in areas where lions abunded?

>People in Europe, at least once the lion was long extinct, only knew the lion from its representation in art, culture, heraldry, bestiaries, etc. They had never seen a live lion or come into direct contact and, therefore, conflict with lions. While they had to suffer attacks from wolves or bears who were indigenous to Europe and lose livestock to those predators, the lion remained abstract and was more or less stylised into a fierce and powerful animal who however served noble causes: the lion came to represent royalty, protection and by extension legitimate power. By serving or embodying noble causes, the lion attained nobility, a status never achieved by the wolf, whose rich mythology was built purely on the very real fear it inspired. In the Far East, the lion was never present in the wild: the tiger was the most fearsome predator in Asia and again, all kinds of legends came to surround this animal because of its frequent attacks on people. But the tiger, while feared, never attained the same degree of nobility of the lion. In China, even though lions never lived there, the lion inspired awe as a powerful and courageous beast who protects instead of mauling people. Its dance, held at the beginning of each year, is said to repel evil spirits.

In time, the lion would even become a benevolent creature, who used its strength to protects the weak and the defenseless and featured in that role in works of art, literature, cartoons, films, etc.

In prehistoric Europe, in Africa and some parts of the Middle East, lions were common. They frequently attacked livestocks and people. The threat posed by lions was all too real and people must have looked for ways of counteracting the fury lions and, by extension nature, seemed to direct at them. To deify and venerate their persecutor was seen as the best way to gain its protection instead of its wrath. Since the lioness herself was viewed as more cunning, vicious and dangerous than the lion, it would have made sense for those peoples to choose her as their protector against lions and the forces of nature in general, like diseases and calamities. A fearsome and unpredictable protector maybe and given to punish them fiercely for reasons they couldn't comprehend. But a protector nonetheless. While the lion does indeed embodies masculine qualities, the lioness first embodied the forces of nature which more often than not persecuted, terrorised and brutalised mankind and had to be conciled and appeased. The attribution of notions of feminity, motherhood and a nurturing role to the lioness came much later, when lions ceased to be a threat and man gained or started to think he was gaining more control over nature.

Copyright N. Jean-Bart 2008