Vrtanes Papazian's "The Lion's Death" is an allegory about a proud lion, the king of the desert, who is captured by a cunning man and put in a zoo cage. Humiliated by his captivity and mocked by the other lesser animals, the lion loses his will to live. In a final, desperate act, he breaks free from his cage and purposefully impales himself on the zookeeper's hot iron, choosing to die "in the free air" rather than live as a captive.