The lion man

[oldeuropeanculture]

This is a stone statue from Armagh, Ulster, Ireland, (pre-christian / pre- 5th c.). It represents a man with a lion's head. It was discovered and first recorded during the reconstruction of the Armagh cathedral in the late 19th century. The man with a lion's head is a very strange image indeed. But this carved slab from the Armagh cathedral is not the only representation of this image found in nothern Europe. Many statues depicting the same man with the lion's head were discovered in the mid 18th century in the Slavic area of the South Baltic, in Pomerania, Pomorje, Fomorie...

Who is this strange figure? I believe that this is a representation of the sun at its most powerful, at the beginning of August, In the middle of Leo zodiac sign, during the week of Crom Dubh, Hromi Daba, Grom Div, The thundering sun giant. It could also just be the oldest codified sculptural representation of a deity, which survived unchanged since the upper paleolithic. I also believe that this deity was developed and preserved by R population (R1a R1b)...

You can read more here:

http://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.ie/2015/02/radegost-welcome-guest.html

 

[Twilight]

How interesting, thank you for posting. I don't recall lions inhabiting Ireland there again the early Celts of Halstatt did come in contact with the ancient Greeks as the Celtoi.

 

[Aberdeen]

That is an interesting find. The mane suggests that it isn't a surviving memory of the cave lions that died out 12,5000-14,000 years ago but a representation of the lions that spread from Africa into southern Europe during the early Holocene, only to die out 5,500-3,000 years ago. Finding such a sculpture in Greece during that time period wouldn't be unique but one wouldn't expect to find it as far north as Ireland, and at such a late date. If it comes from the period when Romans were in Britain or slightly later, it might be an import into Ireland. It's difficult to date stone artifacts unless they're found with organic material that's definitely from the same time period. Regardless, the idea of a Lion Man is fascinating.