Laying Lion

myminifactory

Laying Lion, Egypt, 1st century B.C., Rom, Capitol, plaster copy. The Royal Cast Collection (Copenhagen, Denmark) crafted with Memento Beta (now ReMake) from AutoDesk. During the Pharaonic period, lions were relatively scarce in Egypt, yet held immense significance to the Pharaonic Egyptians. However, it is likely that they gained symbolic status with spiritual associations during prehistoric times. The lion-god Aker protected the gateway to the underworld through which the sun traversed each day, linking the lion with death and rebirth since the sun was born every morning and died every evening on the horizon. Most lion deities (and feline deities) were female, with Sekhmet being almost certainly the most influential. In fact, her cult merged eventually with Mut and the cat goddess Bastet. Maahes was an ancient Egyptian lion-headed god of war, whose name signifies "he who is true beside her." For more updates, please follow @GeoffreyMarchal on Twitter.