Lion radiating heat

One of the coolest lions ever. Bactrian seal. From: "Sulla Via delle Oasi. Tesori dell’Oriente Antico" Ligabue and Salvatori 1989, fig. 46, p. 196).

Lion with "sun's heat" rays coming out of his back. These are usually seen coming out of the shoulders of the Mesopotamia Sun God Utu (Shamash). 

Or out of the back of dragons of Sumer and Akad who had 7 snake heads and lion body...I talked about these dragons in my post "Seven headed dragon". 

Snakes being the symbol of sun's heat, because they are only out when it's hot....I talked about this in my post "The enemy of the sun"... 

Dragon being the symbol of extreme heat and drought of the late summer...I talked about this in my post "Dragon that stole rain"...

So why do Mesopotamian dragons have lion bodies? And why are there sun rays coming out of our original lion's back?

Leo (July 23 and August 22), which marks the end of summer, beginning of autumn, is the hottest part of the solar year in the northern hemisphere. 

In Iraq, this is the hottest and driest part of the year

Which is why on this seal we see Shamahs, the Sun God, standing in the middle of a dry canal, river bed, in the middle of Leo (see the two columns with lioness, left, and lion, right), in the middle of the hottest and driest part of the year...

This is why Mesopotamian dragons have lion bodies...

But why is this part of the year marked by a lion? Because of the Eurasian lions and their mating habits. 

Their main mating season starts in August...

I talked about it in my post "Entemena Vase"...

Because the Asiatic mating season overlaps with autumn, lion is also the symbol of autumn...

I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"

Hence the sun (heat) waves coming out of the lion's body on our Bactrian seal...Just so you don't think that this could be one of a kind "coincidence":

"Bactrian seal of the sun god (see the wavy lines depicting heat coming out of his body). Sumerians depicted their sun god in the same way. Bactrian sun god is holding two snakes because the sunny part of the year is the period between the appearance and disappearance of snakes"...

From my post about "Bactrian snakes and dragons"...

Here is the actual seal, currently kept in the Met Museum...

What I didn't know until today is that this is a double sided stamp seal...Guess what's on the other side Winged Lion Dragon....

In Bactria Leo (Jul-Aug) is the hottest and driest part of the year...

So no wonder that there too lions radiate heat...And ibex goats bring rain...Their mating season coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Bactria...

I talked about Bactrian climate in my post "Fluffy"...