Winged lion

The winged lion is a mythological creature that resembles a lion with bird-like wings.

Mythical adaptations
The winged lion is found in various forms especially in ancient and medieval civilizations.

There were different mythological adaptions for the winged lion:


 * On the beautiful ridges of that mountain flying-lion are inhibiting and they will be winching sharks, fish and elephant seals to their lairs. - from The Ramayana IIT translation.


 * Lamassu or shedu in Mesopotamian mythology was depicted as a winged lion. It was often also depicted with a bull's body instead of a lion's body.
 * The griffin in classical mythology was depicted as a lion-eagle creature. Griffin-like creatures were depicted in Egyptian and Persian mythology.
 * The first beast in the first vision of the biblical prophet Daniel resembled a winged lion.
 * The winged lion was the heraldic symbol of Mark the Evangelist.
 * The Goetic demon Vapula was depicted as a winged lion.

Emblems
The emblems of the winged lions were featured in different countries:


 * The emblem of the Republic of Venice as the heraldic symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of the Republic.
 * The Lion of Venice is an ancient bronze sculpture of a winged lion that is located in the Piazzetta di San Marco, Venice
 * The flag of the short-lived Septinsular Republic, derived from the above (Ionian Islands under Venetian rule), has a winged lion on it
 * The logo of the Italian company Assicurazioni Generali which has a winged lion on it was derived from the above
 * The emblem of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Allied Joint Force Command Naples headquarters, in Italy, is a winged lion holding a sword and scroll on which is written PAX - Latin for 'peace'.
 * The emblem of the Chinese city of Nanjing is Bixie, a winged lion that wards off evils