Evangelist Symbols
Mark, the Evangelist, is symbolised by a lion, because he begins his gospel with the scene of John the Baptist and Jesus in the Wilderness.
Matthew, whose gospel commences with the humanity of Jesus as a descendant of David, is the only one of the Evangelists represented as a man.
Luke is symbolised by a bull or calf, and John by an eagle—the former because his gospel opens with the priests sacrificing in the Temple, and the latter because he soars high and begins his gospel with the divinity of the Logos.
In Greek and Roman art the lion’s head is used particularly on fountains. The Egyptians employed the lion, to symbolise the annual inundations of the Nile, which happens when the sun is in Leo.