WHY DO YOU SAY THAT THE LION IS "THE KING OF THE JUNGLE"?

Especially when there are no lions in the jungle.

The question is more complex than it seems. It is not only about why the lion is considered the king of the animals, but we must also resolve why it is supposed to reign in the jungle instead of the African savannas and grasslands that are its natural habitat.

As it should be done with all the wrong beliefs, we can blame it on our ancestors. And in this case also to the Tarzan films. But above all to our ancestors.

Back in the nineteenth century, Africa was considered as the black continent, an impenetrable jungle according to the way of seeing of the time. The lions were the largest predators of a continent that the people of the time seemed vast and mysterious and, little by little, with the help of the literature of the moment, these felines ended up taking the title of "king" in spite of not be the strongest of the animals. If we are Orthodox and we speak of the authentic jungle, that biome of extensive land full of trees and with a very dense vegetation, the true king of the jungle would be the tiger. At most, the lion would remain king of the savannah, but even that is not true since both hyenas and elephants and other felines can easily compete with him. In addition, not only are the lions the only felines that live in herds, but it seems that those who rule are the females and they are also the ones who bear most of the responsibility of hunting and keeping the group.

So, why this mess?

Probably the implantation of the idea of ​​the lion as "king" comes from the Middle Ages, when this animal was taken as an emblem of royal houses and armies thanks to the strength and power that was granted to this animal.

At that time, both the Greco-Roman tradition and the biblical tradition had already been commissioned to praise the figure of this feline. In Mesopotamia the lions were already associated with royalty and in the Physiologus the lion is spoken of as "the king of the beasts". The first work of Hercules is to kill the Nemean lion and take its skin. The Bible presents the lion as the animal to be fought in individual combat by heroes such as Samson and David, and ends up erecting it as a symbol of Christ as opposed to the leopard (from the Latin leopardus, 'dark lion') that in the New Testament is equated to the devil .

In addition, to this we must add the favored that the lion has left in all its iconography. It appears frequently in the representations of the ark of Noah and, in addition, it was also incorporated in a massive way to the attires of medieval knights becoming part of the 15% of the coats of arms that identify noble families and individuals since the 12th century, there is nothing .

Keeping all this in mind, perhaps the time has come to tell the king of the jungle that he is naked, but to see who is the handsome one who dares. Any volunteer?

beautiful illustrations by puzzle
passio, I will make a publication only of illustrations later.