Leo (constellation) Leo (constellation) Leo is one of the constellations of the zodiac, lying between Cancer the crab to the west and Virgo the maiden to the east. Its name is Latin for lion, and to the ancient Greeks represented the Nemean Lion killed by the mythical Greek hero Heracles meaning 'Glory of Hera' (known to the ancient Romans as Hercules) as one of his twelve labors. Its symbol is (Unicode ♌). One of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, Leo remains one of the 88 modern constellations today, and one of the most easily recognizable due to its
Cape lion Cape lion The Cape lion was a "Panthera leo melanochaita" population in South Africa's Natal and Cape Provinces that has been extirpated in the mid-19th century. The type specimen originated at the Cape of Good Hope and was described in 1842. Until 2017, the Cape lion was considered a distinct lion subspecies. Phylogeographic analysis showed that lion populations in Southern and East Africa are closely related. In 2017, lion populations in Southern and East Africa were subsumed to "Panthera leo melanochaita". "Felis (Leo) melanochaita" was a black-maned lion specimen from the Cape of Good Hope that was described by Ch.