The Zodiac --- The Constellation of Leo the Lion

Leo The Lion. The dates shown are astrological

Leo The Lion is the fifth constellation of the Zodiac. Astronomically, the Sun is in Leo from the tenth of August to the fifteenth of September. 

The asterism of Leo. The Sickle is prominent. Regulus forms the foot of The Sickle; Denebola is the Lion's Tail.

Leo is popular with amateur stargazers. It is one of the few constellations that actually resembles what it is supposed to be, one of the few constellations with two very bright distinctive stars that are both in the Nautical Almanac, and it has an asterism that makes it instantly recognizable --- The Sickle, a reversed question mark with the great star Regulus at its foot, that forms the lion's head and forequarters. 

An 18th Century star guide shows Leo "reversed" with Denebola as the foot and Regulus as the tail.

It was in fact The Sickle that brought paleoarcheologists to the realization that Paleolithic Man had a relationship with the stars. Some 30,000 years ago, an artist in the Lascaux Caves of France painted a tableau of a human figure being gored by a bison or aurochs while a wounded rhinoceros limped away. The entire painting fascinated scientists, but it was the human figure, "The Birdman," that most caught their eye. With his dropped totem stick he seemed to be an unlucky shaman who'd run afoul of the big bovine while pronouncing anathemas on the rhinoceros. It wasn't until decades later that a colleague familiar with astronomy noticed the odd tilt of the animal's tail which tracked, to an amazing degree the shape of The Sickle. Startled scientists realized that what our remote ancestor had painted on the wall at Lascaux were nothing less than three constellations, Leo among them seen not as a lion but as a rhinoceros, the asterism being perceived in reverse order. 

The figure of Leo --- a Woolly Rhinoceros --- on the wall of Lascaux Cave, 30,000 B.C.E. or so. Like the preceding figure, the asterism is seen in "reverse" with The Sickle forming the tail and Denebola the nose or horn of the creature. It was recognition of The Sickle that changed scientists' minds about what "cavemen" knew.

When Leo became a lion is uncertain, but Leo was a lion virtually in every corner of the ancient world when written history began. In 12,000 B.C. lions were ubiquitous creatures. It is easier to say where lions did not live --- Oceania, Australasia, Tibet, Scotland, Ireland, the Arctic coastline, probably not Antarctica, Eastern China (although the Chinese Emperors later knew of lions and kept them in zoos, the horse or stallion replaces the lion in the Chinese Zodiac), and South America (although Incan astrologers just happened to replace the lion with the jaguar in their star charts). Canada seems to have had no lions either, but its more likely that no lion fossils have been found as of yet. 

The "Leo Tableau" at Lascaux. The Rhinoceros is now recognized as Leo. The Birdman is assumed by most to be Gemini and the Bison as Taurus --- although some researchers say that the Birdman could be Orion, and that the stars of the Bison closely match those of the constellation Auriga. What the artist intended we likely will never really know.

Lions ranged through what is now Alaska, the United States, Mexico, and Central America. Fascinated by fossils and by vague Native American legends of lions, President Thomas Jefferson ordered Lewis and Clark to trap an American Lion for study during their expedition west, but the lion was long gone from America by 1804.

Woolly Mammoths, a Woolly Rhinoceros, and early Equus foraging for food at the beginning of the last Ice Age. They are being watched by Cave Lions. All these animals have living relatives, but Equus became extinct in North America some 8,000 years ago, along with the rest.

The Mer-lion is the symbol of Singapore. The name of the lion is always etymologically related to "Ar", "Le" or "Sim" throughout the world.

Lions commanded in Africa from the Atlas Mountains in the north (the Barbary Lion) to the south (the Cape Maned Lion). Lions coexisted with tigers in Siberia and Southeast Asia, where Singapore --- The Lion City --- marked the end of their range. They roamed freely through India and into the Middle East. 

Lions of Judah: "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?" --- Genesis 49:9

 

The Ethiopians consider themselves descendants of Judah. They, and the Rastafarians, often make reference to "The Lion of Judah."

Messianic Christians refer to Jesus Christ as "The Lion of Judah."

The Sumerians knew the lion as Aryo, the Hebrews as Arye and the Hebrew Tribe of Judah took the lion as its symbol as it remains to this day. 

A lion family on the Serengeti. Despite their fearsome reputation lions are less aggressive than house cats.

The ancient people of Persia called themselves Aryans, "The Lion People" and adopted a crowned lion atop a solar throne as their own symbol. It remained in place until the Shah of Iran fell from power in 1979 --- "Iran" is just an alternative spelling of "Aryan." 

The Aryan (Iranian) "Solar Lion" known as Aslan. It is an ancient symbol, suppressed by the current Islamic government of that nation.

Today, lions exist in the wild only in a few protected places --- the Serengeti National Park of Kenya, the Krueger National Park of South Africa, and the Gir Forest National Park of India --- and lion poaching is a deadly threat to the less than 50,000 remnant lions of the world, a species that once numbered in the tens of millions at least. No wonder it was called "The King of Beasts." 

 

An ancient Sumerian winged lion with its forepaws on the backs of two terrestrial lions.

Much like the Aryans, the Sumerians embraced the motif of the lion, especially winged or "solar" lions, and the first human-lion hybrid figures --- sphinxes, with their enigmatic wisdom --- appeared in Mesopotamian culture. 

The Sphinx --- the Man-headed lion --- was considered a wise but enigmatic oracle in ancient Egypt and in Greece, which appropriated the figure.

Chinese astronomer-astrologers were less familiar with lions since they did not live in much of China. Thus the lion is replaced by the stallion or horse in their zodiac. Their heavily-maned sometimes fire-flowing stylized representations of the constellation frequently resemble a lion, so like the house-guarding Foo Dogs (which ARE lions) was the horse originally a lion too?

The Sumerians imbued the lion in the sky --- Aryo, or as we know him, Leo --- with all the positive attributes of kingship --- magnanimity, reason, justice, and fairness --- but they also called Aryo "The Carnivore" or "The Devourer" for the Sun was in Leo at a time when the Tigris and the Euphrates turned to muddy creeks, the plants wilted and turned brown in the awesome heat of the Iraqi summer, and men and animals died in the fields and byways of heat prostration and sunstroke. The dark side of Leo is not dark at all --- it's blazingly, blindingly brilliant. 

 

Leo has four stars of the First and Second Magnitudes, of which Regulus --- "The Little King" or "The Prince" --- is generally agreed to make up the creature's foot, and Denebola it's tail. Thus, Leo is a prominent constellation, especially compared to the very dim adjacent Cancer The Crab.

 

The Cosmic Horseshoe in Leo. The ring is an illusion caused by the bending of light by extreme gravity, an effect called "gravitational lensing."

Leo also has a score or more of Deep Sky Objects, including the whimsical Cosmic Horseshoe and the endearingly-named Sarah's Galaxy (no one seems to know who Sarah was, but somebody loved her).

NGC 3628 is known as the Hamburger Galaxy, or more charmingly as Sarah's Galaxy.