Strange Symbolism

[Octahedron]

Italian insurance company Generali has a winged lion in its corporate logo.

At the entrance of their building are 2 big white rabbits, what does this mean ?

http://www.generali.it/generaliit/home.do

[xan-i]

From the eagle to the lion

(P.S. Might the rabbits be hares?)

[xan-i]

The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares

[Sily]

From here:

" The Winged Lions of Italy

Every city has its distinction; its mark on architecture. For Venice, Italy that mark of distinction is a winged lion. Why a lion when Venice is a maritime city? The symbol does seem an oxymoron but its roots lie deeply in history.

The winged lion was at first St. Mark’s symbol but was later used as the [color="green"]Medici family’[/color]s way of showing the power of Venice. Legend tells us that in the Ninth Century some adventurous Venetian thieves stole the remains of St. Mark the Apostle from Egypt. They smuggled the body onto the ship by stuffing flowers and sow meat around the body so as to keep onlookers away. Soon they made it to the vessel and prepared for sail. No sooner than they had made it to the open water, a storm took hold. It was then that St. Mark “appeared” to the captain and warned him to strike the sails lest the ship crash on the rocks. They survived the storm and reached their intended destination. Local Venice religious authorities elected St. Mark as the patron saint of Venice and the winged lion (St. Mark’s traditional symbol) as the logo of the Venetian Republic.

The winged lion is a symbol of peace and is seen in a multitude of other locales such as the Assyrian temple, the Gates of Xerxes at Perespolis, and the Winged lion of Babylon. Today tourists can see winged lions not only as a Venetian symbol of power and prestige, but as a part of the rich heritage and mystique of the city.

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From here :

"The winged lion is a symbol of peace.
The lion with an open book is a symbol of peace,
with its book closed is a symbol of war."

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Rabbit symbolism from Encyclopedia of Religion.