The creator of The Lion King is Christian!! : L'art de croire Setsuko Takeshita Blog > 자유게시판

I think everyone has heard of the legend of King Arthur.

Characters such as the Knights of the Round Table, Lancelot, and the magician Merlin appeared in various novels when I was a girl.

The origin of the name Arthur (Arthur in French) comes from a word meaning "bear" that is common to Celtic, Germanic, Greek, and Roman. This is because the strongest animal in the European continent, the king of beasts, was the "bear".

It was the Roman Catholic Church that dragged the "bear" off its throne and made the "lion" the king of beasts. (Especially from around the 12th and 13th centuries)

The reason for this is that in many parts of Europe where Roman Catholicism spread, there were various folk beliefs that worshiped the "bear". As the "Bear Festival" in Hokkaido is well known in Japan, the "bear" was the strongest animal in Europe, and how to confront the bear was a matter of life and death for people.

The Roman Empire included the African continent, including Ethiopia, so the existence of lions was known, and it was also known that lions were the strongest animal on the savanna. Even so, the strongest animals in Africa were thought to be elephants and rhinos. Lions are not particularly large, and they pose little actual danger to humans.

The Gospel writers chose the eagle, bull, and lion as their symbolic animals, but did not adopt the bear. Animals worshiped in previous religions need to be erased from the collective unconscious.

So Christianity launched a propaganda campaign promoting the lion as the king of beasts, but it did not take root easily. The Arthurian legend also incorporated the legend of the Holy Grail, which led to Christianization.

(Golden cups and the like have been around since the 12th century, but from the end of the 12th century, versions appeared that it was the cup used at the Last Supper, or the cup that Joseph of Arimathea received the blood of Jesus, and so on. It became a holy relic of Jesus according to the legend of the Holy Grail, which is thought to have been written by a monk in the year of Jesus in 1220, and it was said that anyone who obtained the cup and drank from it would gain eternal life. The "Holy Grail" was spread throughout Europe, especially via the Crusades.)

Even so, the image of the "royal lion" as a symbol of nobility and strength, like King Richard the Lionheart, gradually took root.

Perhaps because there was a trend in Japan of divine beasts such as "lion" and "Karajishi," which seem to have originated from the Indian lion, the "lion" also gradually acquired the dignity of a king. The fact that only the male has a majestic mane and sits still as if watching over the territory is convenient for the patriarchal system, and the "solitary" appearance may have been convenient for human "kings."

It is ironic that he is a spectator from afar and does not actually fight to earn the survival of his clan.

It is well known that it is the female lions who do the hunting, and even when feeding the lions from the bus at the safari park, they are told, "The males have big heads and cannot stand up, so please offer the food at a low position." Otherwise, only the lighter females will take the food offered from above, which will irritate the males, and it is dangerous.

It is said that Disney's "The Lion King" was inspired by Osamu Tezuka's "Jungle Emperor."

But it was the Catholic Church that first gave the bear the title of king of beasts.

The "bear," which was the "king" and "god" of animals in Europe, was turned into "Winnie-the-Pooh."

From the greedy bear that seeks honey to the soft teddy bear.

To take away the bear's sacred status and turn the lion, whose image is easy to manipulate, into the "king," it was necessary to make changes on both sides.