Lion of Piraeus

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The ancient Greek lion statue in front of the arsenal in Venice.

The Lion of Piraeus is an ancient marble statue that was originally created for Athens' port city of Piraeus in Greece . It represents a lion and came into the possession of the Republic of Venice in 1687 as spoils of war . In Venice, it was placed next to other lion statues in front of the arsenal . Striking on the statue is a series of incised runes on various parts of the lion's body.

history

The seated lion was probably made around 360 BC. Created. It is made of light marble and is about 3 meters high. The statue has a hole in the head which, according to older descriptions, contained a ceramic pipe that led water into a cistern in front of the lion. Furthermore, a recess for a hose on the back indicates that the statue was used as a fountain figure. According to a cartographic sketch by the French archaeologist Jacob Spon , the lion was positioned in the northern part of the eastern harbor basin. The statue was so characteristic that in the Middle Ages , Piraeus was called Porto Leone by the Italians .

Athens and Piraeus belonged to the Ottoman Empire since 1460 . As part of the Great Turkish War, Venetian troops under the direction of Francesco Morosini besieged the port city in September 1687 together with a mercenary group under Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck . According to a description by the Dane Carl Christian Rafn , the Ottomans gave up without a fight after just a few days. However, damage to the lion statue from cannonballs suggests that there was fighting. The statue was then shipped to Venice, where it arrived in 1688.

Runes

The runes on the right side of the body as shown in Antiquarisk Tidsskrift by the Dane CC Rafn, published in 1857 .
The left side of the lion with very indistinct runes. Here highlighted by rain water streaks (or other liquid).

Although the incised runes are clearly visible on the lion, they were not recognized as such by the Swedish diplomat and orientalist Johan David Åkerblad until the end of the 18th century . The Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi had already reported drawings on the lion statue that he attributed to a Turkish naval commander, but it is more likely that these were color drawings on the marble that later weathered. Åkerblad published a first description of the runes in 1800 in the Danish specialist journal Skandinavisk Museum II .

After the discovery, many Scandinavian philologists and archaeologists tried to interpret the runes. In addition to the already mentioned Dane Carl Christian Rafn, z. B. the Swedes Nils Fredrik Sander and Erik Brate with the lion. From today's perspective, the results are considered very imaginative.

The runes have worn out a lot since they were installed, which makes their interpretation extremely difficult or even impossible. The researchers only agree that the word “trikir” is on the left side of the body below the shoulder. It has the same root as today's Swedish word "Knechte" (drängar) and was probably used here to mean "young men" or "fighters". The following runes are often interpreted as "carved the runes".

A phrase in the middle part of the text on the left upper arm very likely means "harbor this".

The row of runes on the left arm is designed as a U-shaped loop that continues behind the shoulder in a downward arc on the side of the body. On the right shoulder (with adjacent parts of the body) the row of runes presumably represents a lindworm , roughly in the shape of a lying 8.

The design of the rune rows suggests that they were incised in the 11th or 12th century. The authorship is attributed to Varangians who were in the service of the Byzantine emperor or who visited Piraeus on trade trips. In Northern Europe, a number of Greece rune stones testify to the activities of the Varangians in the Mediterranean. Since the style of the runic rows on the different parts of the lion's body is different, it is believed that these were engraved at different times by different people.

Copies

In the 1890s, the Swedish poet and art collector Nils Fredrik Sander had a plaster copy of the lion made, which became the property of the Swedish State Historical Museum . There it represents the largest exhibition object.

The Swedish amateur archaeologist Helmut Schulze and the Greek engineer Apostolos Dombros started collecting money for a copy in Piraeus in 1989. When the desired amount was collected in 1993, the Greek sculptor Georgios Mengulas was commissioned to make the statue. The ceremonial unveiling took place in 2002 on the Akra Alkimos headland in the port of Piraeus, where he now watches over the shipping.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cornelius Vermeule: Greek Funerary Animals, 450-300 BC In: American Journal of Archeology . Volume 76, 1972, pp. 49-59, here: p. 53, JSTOR 503610 .
  2. ^ Henry Ellis: The British Museum: Elgin and Phigaleian Marbles . London et al. 1833, p. 36.
  3. ^ Gunnar Jarring: Evliya Celebi och Marmorlejonet från Pireus . In: Fornvännen . Volume 85, 1978, ISSN  1404-9430 , pp. 1-4. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Thorgunn Snædal: Runinskrifterna på Pireuslejonet i Venice . Riksantikvarieämbetet, Stockholm, 2014.
  5. ^ Hans Rupprecht Goette : Athens, Attica and the Megarid: An Archaeological Guide . Routledge, London et al. 2001, p. 141. ISBN 0-415-24370-X .
  6. ↑ a b c d Inga Ullén: Runlejonet från Pireus - Historiska museets största föremål . January 2009.
  7. ^ Carl Christian Rafn : En Nordisk Runeindskrift i Piræeus, med Forklaring af CC Rafn . In: Antiquarisk Tidsskrift: Udgivet af det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab 1855–57 . 1859, pp. 3-69.
  8. ↑ Eva Marling: Pireuslejonet har kommit hem . In: Hellenika. No. 105, 2003, p. 10.

literature

Web links

Commons : Lion of Piraeus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Pireuslejonet (black) Christer Hamp , images of the copy in the Stockholm History Museum with reproduction of the interpretations by Nils Fredrik Sander, Sophus Bugge and Erik Brate (change between views necessary).
  • Interpretation of the runes by Carl Christian Rafn in Antiquarisk Tidsskrift , left side & right side (Danish).

Coordinates: 45 ° 26 '5.2 "  N , 12 ° 20' 59.3"  E