The lion as a noble and royal animal frequently figures in the XVIIIth dynasty. The Egyptians, with their marvellous instinct for taming every animal they could find, actually trained lions or leopards to live as domesticated animals, with the same sort of allowed wildness as modern hunting dogs. The lion accompanied the king in battle; but in camp it lay down as peaceably as an ox. It was frequently carved on the sides of the thrones of the XVIIIth-XXth dynasties, and also seated in pairs, facing or backing, on the temple walls, a usage reminding us of the lion gate of Mykenae of the same age.