The Image of the Lion in Coptic Art
Journal of Coptic Studies 15 (2013) 95–116 doi: 10.2143/JCS.15.0.3005415
THE IMAGE OF THE LION IN COPTIC ART
BY OLGA OSHARINA
The present essay intends to analyze the iconography and symbolism of Early Christian representations of the lion in the light of its contemporary literature. This process will be illustrated by many examples, in particular from the Hermitage museum collection. The symbol of the lion, as that of many other Christian images, is characterized by a duality, which proves difficult to grasp in literature as well as in art. In the Old Testament tradition, a lion symbolizes a king of beasts who can stare at the sun as an eagle.1 Battle scenes depicting the famous Old Testament heroes such as David, Samson and the prophet Daniel, on the other hand, paint a lion as personification of the powers of hell. Paired lion figures were used as formidable guards of the Arch of the Covenant and the name of the main altar of Solomon’s Temple, “Ariel” means “God’s lion” in Ancient Hebrew. Moreover, as a lion, the invisible god Yahweh gobbles up sinners.2 In classical art and literature, the lion is part of the Dionysian sphere, Dionysus himself often taking the form of a lion. In the Gospel of Thomas Jesus says, “Blessed is the lion which becomes man when consumed by man, and cursed is the man whom the lion consumes, and the lion becomes man.”3 This seems to illustrate the idea of struggle between the beastly habits and the divine human nature. In the Alexandrian Physiologus Christ is attributed with a lion’s force and caution. The lion sleeps in his cave with open eyes; Christ is continu- ously watching believers.4 In this text by an anonymous author of the 2nd century AD one of the main symbolic meanings of the lion — the resurrection — was clearly represented for the first time. According to Physiologus, a father lion comes to a lioness on the third day after she gave birth to a dead cub and recovers the latter to life with his breath.5 The same legend can be found in later Medieval Bestiaries.
1 Eccl. 11, 7. 2 Sir. 28, 26. 3 Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library II 2, 127. 4 Curley, Physiologus, 4. 5 Curley, Physiologus, 4.
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The ambiguity of the lion as a symbol can be traced back to the works of the Church Fathers of the first and second century. Robert M. Grant shows that lions were indeed not always hostile to Christians.6 Stories about lions and their relations with human beings were rather common at the time. Coptic written sources present a particularly rich amount of information on the symbolism of the lion. This information is, however, rather contradictory. For example, according to the Coptic Homily of St. Michael the Archangel (10th century) from the collection of the State Public Library of St. Petersburg, on the day of judgement, the devil will be roaring like a terrible lion and crying: “Give me those who are Mine.”7 The Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah (4th century) describes Christ, the king of the world, resting on the sea like a roaring lion who will kill the king of injustice.8 Furthermore, lions often accompany Egyptian saints and hermits. There are famous stories about lions humbly serving Egyptian hermits. Apa Shenute of the White monastery identified himself with a lion, a slave of Christ.9 His disciple and successor Besa told the story of Shenute on a ship when lions bent their heads before him accepting his blessing. Looking at images of lions in Coptic art, one detects a long-standing association with solar and chthonic cults, which seem to predetermine the ambiguity of their symbolism and the variety of their iconographic motifs. Prototypes of these motifs are found in Hellenistic art, in tradi- tions leading back to Syria, as well as in Near Eastern motifs which had been transformed by Sassanian craftsmen for several centuries. In the Graeco-Roman period, images of lions could be employed as guardians of tombs or other important locations, functioning as apotropaic symbols. This tradition persists in the Early Christian period. The Hermit- age museum owns a pair of lion figures carved in limestone, which prob- ably served as a support structure for water vessels [Pl. 1].10 Lion figures are also found as handles of various kinds of bronze ware, such as bowls, candelabra, and censers. In this case they likewise functioned to avert evil [Pl. 2–3]. A typology of lion images can best be established by looking at Coptic textiles. This is due to the large amount of textiles and textile fragments preserved from Christian Egypt. One of the earliest types of a lion on
6 Grant, Lions 148. 7 Elanskaya, Manuscripts 45. 8 Pieterma, Comstock, Attridge, The Apocalypse of Elijah 5:15. 9 Leipoldt, Sinuthii 79.7. 10 Kakovkin, Sokrovischa 92 № 92.
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drapery goes back to the 3rd and 4th centuries, presenting a type of jump- ing lion usually with his tail raised in the form of the letter S. This type of lion usually appears in a circular or oval medallion. Such an example can be seen in the Hermitage collection [Pl. 4–5]. The majority of such medallions originate from two former Greek cities, Akhmim and Antinoe, and their closest comparable examples appear in mosaics from a number of Hellenistic centers in Syria.11 These medallions were sewn on to tunics, and served not only as ornaments, but also as phylacteria or protective amulets. This seems to be suggested by their frequently employed eight- pointed shape, which in Egypt was believed to have protective power.12 An example of such a medallion can be seen in the Hermitage museum [Pl. 6]. Images on these textile medallions show only slight differences from each other. Sometimes the lion is running to the right, sometimes to the left, and sometimes it is shown jumping. The only elements that vary are background and frame. During the 5th century waved patterns were often used,13 while in the 5th–6th centuries masters preferred inter- lacing ornaments [Pl. 7].14 Later on, the border was decorated with vine leaves [Pl. 8]. By the 6th century a new kind of ornament had appeared consisting of six leaves located in pairs. During the 6th–8th centuries devel- opments of this composition remain largely stylistic, as the depth of the composition becomes plain, the naturalistic designs more stylized [Pl. 9–10].15 As mentioned above, depicted lions frequently form part of a Diony- sian scene. The 6th century fronton from Ahnas showing Pan pursuing a maenad flanked by lions16 is one such example. Compositions with a so-called “inhabited scroll” belong to the same range of subjects. These compositions, framed by lush medallions of acanthus or vine leaves [Pl. 11–12], show figures, such as Erotes gathering grapes, maenads and bacchants, warriors with shields and spears, as well as various kinds of animals, such as boars, deer, lions, dogs, and hares [Pl. 13]. Understood as symbols of abundant life and eternal revival these scenes seem to appear first on mosaics and in reliefs on sarcophagi, as well as on objects of ivory and bronze during the Flavian period.17 How the various different
11 Buschhausen, Byzantinische Mosaiken 228 n. 16. 12 Maguire, Garments 216. 13 Mat’e, Katalog 163 n. 22. 14 Mat’e, Katalog 164 n. 331. 15 Kakovkin, Sokrovischa 108 n. 247. 16 Effenberger, Koptische Kunst 61 and 190, pl. 26. 17 Toynbee and Perkins, Peopled Scrolls 11.
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animals peacefully co-exist in these compositions recalls the prophetical words by Isaiah (11:6–8). Birds and animals, vases with flowers, baskets with fruits, and similar bucolic scenes work as allusions to the Christian Paradise, where beast and man live in eternal peace freed from sin through Christ. The lion as a symbol of resurrection18 can be identified alongside por- traits of the deceased placed into medallions, similar to Roman imagines [Pl. 14]. There are also a number of early textiles from the 4th–5th centu- ries in the Hermitage Museum with images of a horseman [Pl. 15] or a centaur [Pl. 16] located in a central medallion and bordered by vine leaves, running animals, baskets with flowers, and various floral orna- ments presenting a version of an inhabited scroll. These textiles were used as covers for funeral pillows,19 as well as insertions for tunics. Horses could function here as psychopompoi, much in the way an eagle does on Coptic stelae [Pl. 17]. Likewise, centaurs surrounded by satires and mae- nads in Dionysian scenes evoke hope for revival along with peace in Paradise symbolized by the inhabited scroll motives on these same fabrics. Examples of the frequently depicted scene of Orpheus taming wild animals, found also in the Hermitage collection, include lions [Pl. 18],20 which thus form part of the symbol of Paradise. The sanctified image of the lion appears also in a small fabric medallion from the Hermitage col- lection showing a lion with the cross above his head. [Pl. 19] Along with other examples of a similar composition in early Christian art, this image evokes the baptism of all people and animals described in The Acts of the Apostle Paul.21 As a representation of the forces of Hell the lion is shown struggling with the Old Testament heroes Samson and David, as well as with the Greek hero Heracles, all three of them famous conquerors of evil [Pl. 20]. Lions are likewise often found in hunting scenes, which can follow Mediterranean as well as Near Eastern iconographic traditions. There are two kinds of hunting scenes, one involving mounted hunters, the other dismounted hunters. The mythological hunting scenes of the classical period showing famous hunters, such as Artemis, Meleager, Heracles, or Belerophon seem to turn into a more symbolic hunt on textiles of the
18 Grabar, Iconography 74. 19 Lewis, Iconography 38. 20 Kakovkin, Sokrovischa 78, n. 136. 21 Grant, Lions 151. In the fragmentary Coptic text the scene with the baptism of the lion has unfortunately not been preserved, cf. Budge, Miscellaneous Coptic texts 1043–1084.
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6th–7th centuries involving an anonymous horseman or dismounted hunter,22 now often accompanied by a lion as a protector. A printed reserve fabric of the 4th century from Ahmim, now in the Hermitage Museum, shows four hunters each fighting with a different animal.23 Each group of hunter and beast is separated from the other by a tree. These four main scenes are arranged symmetrically, with separate figures of animals filling the space between them. Both, composition as well as hunting posture, such as the thrusting of a spear onto a lion is well known from Roman hunting scenes. Likewise, the fleeing animals looking back, are found, for example, in mosaics from Pompeii. The hunting scenes on Coptic textiles, however, differ from their Roman prototypes with respect to a more conventional character and altered proportions. The heroic hunting scene as a symbol of immortality in Roman funeral context opened up to a broader image of victory of Good over Evil or the triumph of life over death. These scenes showed valour, force and virtue of hunt- ers, identifying them with the deceased and thus securing immortality for the latter.24 Hunting scenes with symmetrically arranged horsemen accompanied by lions might be influenced through Near Eastern examples,25 such as shown on silk work preserved in the Hermitage Museum. There dis- mounted hunters represent allusions to Gilgamesh and his battle with a lion. Lions are depicted standing on two paws, sometimes bowing their heads, or touching the hero’s feet. “They just added a second lion to the typical Sassanian glyptic composition (a tzar or a hero fighting a rampant lion)”, as Vladimir Lukonin has remarked.26 This is how the depiction of “Daniel in the lion’s den” appeared which later became a widespread subject on Sassanian gems and in Christian art. The Near Eastern influence can also be detected in compositions with lions flanking an amphora or a cantharus from which a grapevine is growing [Pl.21],27 symbolizing the Tree of Life. This motif can be found on many limestone reliefs of the 7th–8th centuries from Bawit.28 Along
22 Andreae, Symbolik 13. 23 Kakovkin, Sokrovischa 50, n. 73. 24 Cumont, Recherches 261-62. 25 Jerusalimskaya, Les soieries byzantines 18. 26 Lukonin, Gemmy, Pl. VI. n. 188, 189. 27 Mat’e, Katalog 114 n. 94. The composition showing the lion near grapevine is known also from several museum collections, as for example from the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, cf. Shurinova, Koptskie tkani, n. 205, n. 206, Pl. 90, 91. 28 Effenberger, Koptische Kunst 119, pl. 52.
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the same lines follows the depiction of lions flanking a cross on a lime- stone capital, likewise from Bawit and dated to the 7th century.29 On the whole, the image of the lion seems to have been adapted, devel- oped and changed over the course of time from the 4th to the 10th century. Some images functioned as apotropaic or protective amulets, some alluded to Christian virtues and Paradise, and others were understood as symbols of the Resurrection. As a symbol of the irrepressible vital power the lion could personify both, the beastly habits necessary to overcome in order to gain moral perfection and union with God, as well as force of life created by God as an integral part of any human being.
Bibliography
Andreae, Bernard. Die Symbolik der Löwenjagd. Hamburg 1985. Budge, Ernest A. W. Miscellaneous Coptic texts in the dialect of Upper Egypt. London 1915. Buschhausen, Helmut. Byzantinische Mosaiken aus Jordanien. Wien 1986. Cirley, Michael J. Physiologus. A Medieval Book of Nature Lore. University of Chicago Press 1979. Cumont, Franz. Recherches sur le symbolisme funéraire des Romains. Paris 1942. Effenberger, Arne. Koptische Kunst. Leipzig 1975. Elanskaya, Alla. “Coptic Manuscripts of the M. E. Saltykov-Schedrin State Public Library.” Palestinskii Sbornik 9 (1962), 43–66. — (ed.). Izrecheniya egypetskich otsov. Pamyatniki literatury na koptskom yazyke. Sankt-Peterburg 1993. Grabar, André. Christian Iconography. New York 1968. Grant, Robert M. “Lions in Early Christian Literature.” In: Abraham J. Malherbe, Frederick W. Norbis, James W. Thompson (eds.).: The Early Church in its Context. Essays in Honor of Everett Ferguson. Supplements to Novum Testamentum XC. Leiden 1998, 147–154. Jerusalimskaya, Anna. “Les soieries byzantines à la luùière des influences orien- tales: les thèmes importés et leur interprétation dans le monde occidental.” Bulletin du CIETA 80 (2003), 16–25. Kakovkin, Alexandr. Koptskie tkani iz fondov Ermitazha. Leningrad 1978. — (ed.). Sokrovischa koptskoy kollektsii Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha. Katalog vystavki. Sankt-Petersburg 2004. Leipoldt, Johannes. Sinuthii archimandritae vita et opera omnia III. CSCO 42. Louvain 1908 (repr. 1952).
29 Wessel, Koptische Kunst 33 Abb. 29.
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Lewis, Susan. “The Iconography of the Coptic Horseman in Byzantine Egypt”. JARCE 10 (1973), 27–63. Lukonin, Vladimir. Sasanidskie Gemmy. Leningrad 1963. Mat’e, Militsa and Lyapunova, Kseniya. Chudozhestvennye tkani koptskogo Egipta. Moscow-Leningrad 1951. Maguire, Henry. “Garments Pleasing to God: The Significance of Domestic Textile Designs in the Early Byzantine Period.” DOP 44 (1990), 215– 224. Pietersma Albert, Comstock Susan Turner, and Attridge Harold A., The Apoca- lypse of Elijah Based on P. Chester Beatty 2018. Texts and translations 19. Pseudepigraphica series 9. Missoula, Mont. 1981. Robinson James M. (ed.). The Nag Hammadi Library in English Revised Edition. Leiden 1996. Shurinova, Raisa. Koptskie tkani. Sobranie Gosudarstvennogo museya Izobrazitel’nych Iskusstv. Moscow 1967. Strzygowski, Josef. Orient oder Rom: Beiträge zur Geschichte der spätantiken und frühchristlichen Kunst. Leipzig 1901. Toynbee, Jocelyn M. C. and Ward-Perkins, John B. “Peopled Scrolls: A Hellen- istic Motif in Imperial Art.” Papers of the British School at Rome XVIII (1950), 1–43. Wessel, Klaus. Koptische Kunst. Die Spätantike in Ägypten. Recklinghausen 1963.
Olga Osharina The State Hermitage Museum/Oriental Department Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya, 34 190000 Saint Petersburg RUSSIA [email protected]
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1. Statuette of a lion. Egypt. Limestone. Carved. N 11123. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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2. Handle in the shape of a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Bronze. Cast N 10734. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
3. Handle in the shape of a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Bronze. Cast N 10761. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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4. Tapestry medallion with a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11356. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
5. Tapestry medallion with a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11278. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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6. Tapestry eight-pointed medallion with a lion, warrior and animals. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 9066. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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7. Tapestry panel with a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11271. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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8. Tapestry medallion with a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11263. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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9. Tapestry band with a lion and a 10. Tapestry band with a warrior figure of a saint. Egypt. VII–VIII c. and animals. Egypt. VII–VIII c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 13160 b. N 11374. © The State Hermitage Museum, © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg St. Petersburg
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11. Tapestry band with running animals in the medallions. Egypt. VII–VIII c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11383. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
12. Tapestry band with running animals in the acanthus leaves medallions. Egypt. VII–VIII c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 12783 a. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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13. Tapestry band with warrior and animals in the medallions. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11502. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
14. Tapestry panel with a half-figured man. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 12787. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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15. Tapestry medallion with a horseman. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 9709. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
16. Tapestry medallion with a centaur. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 12485. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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17. Tapestry medallion with a horseman. Egypt. VI–VII c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11324. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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18. Tapestry medallion with Orpheus. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11158. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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19. Tapestry medallion with a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 11165. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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20. Tapestry medallion with a man fighting with a lion. Egypt. V–VI c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 8971. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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21. Textile fragment with Pan and two lions. Egypt. VI–VII c. Wool, linen. Tapestry weaving. N 12513. © The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
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