"in the Mithraic religion, a strange God of Time,
Aion,
called Kronos or Deus Leontocephalus,
because his
stereotyped representation is a lion-headed man, who,
standing in a rigid attitude, is
encoiled by a snake, whose
head projects forward from behind over the lion’s
head.
The figure holds in each hand a key,
on the chest
rests a thunderbolt,
upon his back are the four wings of the wind;
in addition to that, the figure sometimes bears
the Zodiac on his body."
"As is suggested by the name of the divinity, a symbol
of time, is most interestingly
composed from libido
symbols. The lion, the zodiac sign of the greatest summer
heat,
is the symbol of the most mighty desire.
(“My soul roars with the voice of a hungry lion,” says
Mechthild of Magdeburg.)
In the Mithra mystery the
serpent is often antagonistic to the lion, corresponding to
that very universal myth of the battle of the sun with the dragon."
i.e., eclipse.