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STRIDING LION

On the banks of the Euphrates River, in the ancient city of Babylon, a celebratory pageant was held each New Year. Citizens carried images of the city's deities in an elaborate dance along Babylon's Processional Way, and out of the city through a massive gate named after Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war. Guarding the Processional Way, accompanied by 120 of his brothers and sisters, was the Striding Lion. Magnificent, with his roaring mouth open wide, he symbolized Ishtar and the power and glory the Babylonians believed Ishtar had bestowed upon them.

Though this ancient pageant exists now only in history books and in a rich mythology, the image of the Striding Lion and his 120 brothers and sisters continues to symbolize strength, unity, ritual, community, and celebration. It is on these virtues that Striding Lion InterArts Workshop is founded.