The winged lion, mythical beast and muse for many a medieval gargoyle.
I’ve been creating a few mythical creature images of late, the latest was the winged lion. Recently, I had an on-line chat about gargoyles, and wondered if there were any winged lion gargoyles out there – and it seems there are rather quite a few.
I wondered who would have come up with the idea of the gargoyle, the sometimes grotesque-looking heads that we see on the sides of buildings. I never once thought that they’d actually have a function.
Apparently, they were the first waterspouts on buildings, long before drainpipes were invented. They were designed to move water away from the building… and thinking about it makes sense. And probably, they were very ornate when first created, only to be weathered by time to turn into the grotesque statues we see today.
Their name stems from the word to gargle, which is also obvious when you think about it.
So, now I know all I need to know about gargoyles, I just need to find out a little about the winged lion itself.
The griffin is a type of winged lion, although this creature has the head of a bird rather than that of a lion. A quick internet search reveals the ‘First Beast’ from the ‘Four Winds of Heaven’ seen by Daniel in a vision, is a winged lion, and represents Babylon. It appeared in an apocalyptic dream; but worry not! Apocalypses, apparently, were extremely common between 300BC and 100AD… they just represented major changes.
We’re probably going through an apocalypse right now, but are so caught up in our everyday things we aren’t even aware of it. Hey ho! All we can do is keep on keeping on, with a smile on our faces and a bounce in our steps.
Posted for Six Word Saturday.
The Mansionic Perspective 
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