I presume RET is asking -- and if not, I am -- was Yaaqov avinu's berakhah
of Yehudah the first association of lions with melukhah? Or did he draw
from some pre-existing part of the ancient world?
Who says he *did* associate lions with melucha? The pesukim don't
make such an association. Unkelus does make that connection,
translating "gur aryeh Yehudah" as a prophecy that royalty will
come to Yehudah, but even there Rashi explains that this means that
a young David will become a mighty king, just as a lion cub becomes
a mighty beast. So the lions there are not really a symbol of
royalty but of might; and Unkelus's treatment of the rest of the
pasuk seems to confirm that.
But all this is about using lions as a symbol of royalty. RET's
question was not about that but about the idea that lions themselves
are kings, and that seems to come from a Xian source.
I presume RET is asking -- and if not, I am -- was Yaaqov avinu's
berakhah
of Yehudah the first association of lions with melukhah? Or did he draw
from some pre-existing part of the ancient world?
I can't say with any authority what was in Yaakov Avinu's thoughts
there, but lion imagery in the ancient world certainly does seem to
predate him.