Honeymoon

What is sweeter than honey?
and what is stronger than a lion?

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Dear Moon
We blame you for floods
for the flush of blood
for men who are also wolves
And even though you could pull
the tide in by its hair
we tell people that we walked all
over you
we blame you for the night
for the dark
for the ghosts
you cold unimaginable thing
following us home,
we use you
to see each others frail
naked bodies beneath your blue light,
we let you watch; you
swollen against the glass
breath a halo of steam
as we move against one another
wet and desperate
like fish under
a waterlogged sky

- Warsan Shire

A pair of scientists from Earth - a parapsychologist and a cryptozoologist - were unfortunate enough to identify this divine being.

They had been pursuing the elusive god for years, the same way a carnivore seeks out prey in the wild: full of confidence and the belief that nothing could possibly go wrong. However, since so little information had been recorded on this deity before, no one had realized that they were wandering into the den of an apex predator.

A lion.

Throughout the histories of various countries on planet Earth, the lion has been depicted in many ways.

In ancient Greece, Socrates believed the lion to be a selfish and greedy creature comparable to the narcissism of humanity. He called this the "leontomorphic principle".

In Egypt, the sphinx was the divine protector of the pharaohs. Its name in Arabic means "The Father of Dread". Sekhmet, the ancient Egyptian goddess of war, ferocity, and the sun, was also a lion.

In Mesopotamia, statues of lions decorated buildings and houses of worship. Their presence carried a sense of majesty and royalty for all who saw them.

Most famously, the Gnostics believed that their demiurge - who fashioned the entire universe from nothing - had the head of a lion.

The same bitter, petty demiurge who is responsible for all of humankind's suffering.

The same ravenous, insatiable demiurge who devours the stray souls of the dead.

The same conceited, arrogant demiurge who sits upon a false throne of godhood.

And they weren't wrong.