The Scholars’ Lion at Columbia University in New York City is a donation from the Columbia College Classes of 1971 and 1996, installed in 2004 in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the institution. The figure of the lion is representative of the noble tradition of a Great Books education, and is a mascot of Columbia. Hidden in its great mane is a small mouse—alluding to Aesop’s fable, and also to the growth-of-self that is inherent to the path of education.