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The Lion Slayer

The slaying of the lion is another motif closely related to the theme of the solar giant.

The indestructible nature of the giant can only be overcome by a hero who has attained an identical form of indestructibility. In the conflict with Balor of the evil eye, Lugh’s solar identity is disclosed by his single blazing eye, and the indestructible solar power is turned inward upon it’s source, when the solar hero, blasts a hole through the back of Balor’s head. In the myths concerning David and Goliath, Diarmaid and Sharvan, and Odysseus and Polyphemus, the weapon of the giant is also turned upon it’s source.

“The indestructible nature of the giant can only be overcome by a hero who has attained an identical form of indestructibility.”

One of Heracles’ early labours, the slaying of the Nemean lion, is a good example of a hero who attains an indestructible nature. Heracles is unable to penetrate the lion’s hide, and instead crushes the beast to death, simultaneously achieving oneness in both life and death. Heracles then flays the lion’s skin, cutting the hide with the beast’s own claws, much in the same way as David severs Goliath’s head, with his own sword. The hero afterwards wears the skin of the lion, that is, he clothes himself in indestructibility, becoming again, identical in nature to the all destroying, yet life giving, divine force.

The same idea of acheiving a divine nature can be found in African puberty rites:

…This comes out quite clearly in African initiation ceremonies; here too circumcision is equivalent to death, and the operators are dressed in lion skins and leopard skins; they incarnate the divinities in animal form who in mythical times first performed initiatory murder. The operators wear the claws of beasts of prey and their knives are barbed. They attack the novices genital organs, which shows that the intention is to kill them. The act of circumcision is expressed by the verb “to kill.” But soon afterward the novices are themselves dressed in leopard or skins; that is, they assimilate the divine essence of the initiatory animal and hence are restored to live in it. (Rites and symbols of initiation: the mysteries of birth and rebirth, Mircea Eliade, p.23, 1958 Harper & Row)

Gilgamesh also killed and wore the skin of lions before he passed through the gate of the scorpion men. The scorpion gate is equivalent to the old and new moons, discussed in my previous article The old and new moon boat, and are representative of the temporal realm, as opposed to the solar-eternal realm.

The Scorpian Gate

A steatite stamp seal (above) from north Mesopotamia, dating to 3300 B.C, represents the duel lunar-solar mystery of the temporal-lunar double-door, and the eternal-solar gateway. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, once the hero has clothed himself in lion skins and passed the scorpion men, he must then traverse the ocean of death — that, as mentioned in my previous article, only the sun god himself can cross — in order to reach the island of immortality. It is only by attaining an indestructible nature (symbolized by the lion skins), and becoming at one with the solar principle, that Gilgamesh can achieve his goal, at least in the preexistent mythos of the solar hero, upon which the journey of Gilgamesh is clearly based.

The Hebrew hero Samson, whose name means ‘sunlight’, also killed a lion, obtaining the gift of ambrosial honey from the beast’s carcass. This act is the equivalent of Odysseus obtaining the ambrosial wine from Polyphemus’ eye. The myth that Samson unhinged the gates of Gaza and carried them upon his shoulders to the top of hill, is probably an interpretation of an iconic representation of the god in solar aspect standing within a lunar style double-door upon the cosmic axis-mundi (Judges 16:3).

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