Frank Frazetta was the perfect artist to capture the danger and majesty of Burroughs’ lion creatures.
An author can become identified with certain motifs. This applies to monsters as much as it does cars, women or swear words. Robert E. Howard had his gorillas and giant snakes. H. P. Lovecraft liked wormy things and ghouls. Edgar Rice Burroughs had his own as well–the lion. Not just the African lion (Panthera leo leo) or “Numa”, who appears in the Tarzan novels, most notably as Jad-Bal-Ja, the Golden Lion. Other lions appeared in The Lost Continent (1916) and The Lad and the Lion (1938) to name two.
Tarzan of the Apes (1914) has its share of lions, originally called Numa. It unfortunately also had tigers, called Sabor, which Burroughs had not realized lived only in Asia. In the second edition ERB changed Sabor to mean the lioness and took out the striped cats.
The man before him was the embodiment of physical perfection and giant strength; yet it was not upon these he depended in his battle with the great cat, for mighty as were his muscles, they were as nothing by comparison with Numa’s. To his agility, to his brain and to his long keen knife he owed his supremacy. His right arm encircled the lion’s neck, while the left hand plunged the knife time and again into the unprotected side behind the left shoulder. The infuriated beast, pulled up and backwards until he stood upon his hind legs, struggled impotently in this unnatural position.
The quintessential image of Tarzan, it was rendered by Clinton Pettee for the cover of All-Story Magazine (October 1912), showing Tarzan astride a lion, knife in hand, saving John Clayton’s life. This image was later replaced in 1922 when Jad-Bal-Ja joined Tarzan as his friend, in J. Allen St. John’s classic image for Tarzan and the Golden Lion. Like Tantor the Elephant and Nkima the Monkey, a lion would now walk beside the ape-man.
About the same time Tarzan was fighting lions, David Innes was heading for the center of the Earth where he found a primordial world filled with dinosaurs and cavemen. Of course, lions weren’t far behind. At the Earth’s Core (1914) features the Pellucidarian cave-lion or Ta-Ho. Burroughs prefers the saber-tooth tiger but he did use the cave-lion in “The Return to Pellucidar” (Amazing Stories, February 1942) and collected in Savage Pellucidar (1962).
He knew the author of that roar. It was a cave lion and the less business he had with a cave lion the happier he would be and the longer he would live.
In The Land That Time Forgot (1918) we are introduced to the lost world of Caspak, an island hidden behind mists is also a home to dinosaurs and big cats. In the third book, Out of Time’s Abyss (1918) Brady meets up with a large specimen of the cat family:
The snapping of a twig aroused Brady out of a dead sleep, and as he opened his eyes, he saw that it was broad daylight and that at twenty paces from him stood a huge lion. As the man sprang to his feet, his rifle ready in his hand, Sinclair awoke and took in the scene in a single swift glance. The fire was out and Bradley was nowhere in sight. For a long moment the lion and the men eyed one another. The latter had no mind to fire if the beast minded its own affairs-they were only too glad to let it go its way if it would; but the lion was of a different mind.
His next leo was the Martian or Barsoomian variety known as the Banth. Burroughs’ initial foray into writing produced “Under the Moons of Mars” (1911) (better known in book form as A Princess of Mars). The sequel to this novel was The Gods of Mars (1918) which features the ten-legged lion of Mars:
The banth is a fierce beast of prey that roams the low hills surrounding the dead seas of ancient Mars. Like nearly all Martian animals it is almost hairless, having only a great bristly mane about its thick neck. Its long, lithe body is supported by ten powerful legs, its enormous jaws are equipped, like those of the calot, or Martian hound, with several rows of long needle-like fangs; its mouth reaches to a point far back of its tiny ears, while its enormous, protruding eyes of green add the last touch of terror to its awful aspect.
Earth and Mars had lions; so must Venus aka Amtor. Carson Napier ends up on Venus by accident (Smart enough to build a spaceship but not to account for the Moon’s gravity. Pulp logic!) The cloud-enshrouded planet is home to gigantic trees, giant spiders and winged men, and of course, lions. In the second book of the series, Lost on Venus (1935) he encounters the Tharban:
Presently a huge beast slunk out of the forest into the clearing, and I recognized it. I saw the stiff hair, like bristles. It was standing erect along the shoulders, neck, and spine. I saw the white, longitudinal stripes marking the reddish coat, and the bluish belly and the great, snarling jaws. The creature was a tharban.
Even when earthmen go Beyond the Farthest Star (1940) they find lions. Burroughs hardly seems to be trying here:
Like most of the animals that I have seen on Poloda, it did not differ greatly from those on Earth; that is, they all have four legs, and two eyes, and usually a tail. Some are covered with hair, some with wool, some with fur, and some are hairless. The Polodan horse has three-toed feet, and a little horn in the center of his forehead. The cattle have no horns, nor are their hoofs cloven, and in fighting they bite and kick like an earthly horse. They are not horses and cows at all, but I call them by earthly names because of the purposes for which they are used. The horses are the saddle animals and beasts of burden, and occasionally are used for food. The cattle are definitely beef animals, and the cows give milk. The creature that was creeping toward us with menacing growls was built like a lion and striped like a zebra, and it was about the size of an African lion. I drew my pistol from its holster, but Bantor Han laid a hand upon my arm.
Edgar Rice Burroughs was a writer who knew the value of danger in an adventure story. The lethal sleekness of the lion epitomized that terrible deadliness for him. Only a beast so fearsome could be worthy to fight with his amazing creations Tarzan or John Carter. The lion is truly the king of all of Burroughs’ menagerie of beasts.
In Imaginary Worlds (1973) Lin Carter singles out Burroughs for his fauna-building skill:
Some writers seem to have recognized the problem of anamundism [something that doesn’t logically belong in a story such as horses on another planet or everybody in the galaxy speaking English– GW] and avoid it in interesting ways. Burroughs, for example, has created a unique, original biosphere for his imaginary version of Mars. In place of the horse, his characters ride about on eight-legged mammals he calls “thoats”…In the course of his Martian series, Burroughs added to his Barsoomian bestiary…the hairless, lion-like “banth”…” (Pg 226).
Carter applauds Burroughs for his creativity but I have to disagree in the wide view. The Tharbans of Venus feel no different than another African lion or the Barsoomian Banth. Burroughs was better when he invented new creatures such as the Wieroos, Mahars or Apts. To this Carter would probably agree.