Under the lion’s shadow. Iconographic evidence of Apedemak in the Meroitic Royal District at Napata

The lion is one of the most widespread and evergreen symbols of the Egyptian kingship; the lion-king motif recurs in traditional iconography and in royal inscriptions as an attribute of power, domination, strength. At the same time, the lion gods are characterized by ambivalent value and invested with destructive as well as protective potentiality. In Nubia the lion divinity begins to take on importance in the passage between Napatan and Meroitic phases: a leonine god joins Amun like the protector of royalty, especially in central and northern Sudan; he could be the result of syncretic phenomena with the lion-headed god Mahes, but his name is purely Meroitic: Apedemak. This work is intended to give an overview about the iconographic evidence of the lion-god Apedemak, protector of kingship and guardian of the Meroitic Royal District at Jebel Barkal, currently being excavated by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Sudan.