Animal fighting group (Olympia B 5110)

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Animal fighting group

The animal fighting group is a fragment of a pelvic handle that is broken on both attachments . It was found during excavations in a well on the north wall of the stadium in Olympia and is under inventory number B 5110 in the Olympia Archaeological Museum . The time of origin is around 490/480 BC. Dated.

The small bronze sculpture is 30.6 cm wide. It is probably the work of a bronze caster from Attica and is one of three similar handle figures that have been found so far. The other two specimens come from Athens and Lokri and are older than the find from Olympia, but smaller and less elaborate. In contrast to the Olympic animal fighting group, the other two pieces were on a flat bronze podanipter (foot wash basin ), which is why a podanipter is also accepted as a vessel for this handle. The vessel must have had a diameter of over half a meter and was probably on a tripod . It is assumed that the lion's foot excavated at the same site could be a foot of this basin. The Podanipter probably came to Olympia as a votive offering . Since vase painting shows that a sacrificial animal was watered from such a vessel, cultic use cannot be ruled out.

The animal fighting group shows a male stag being attacked by lions from the front and back. Both lions kick the deer's left legs with one of their hind paws, the rear lion claws its back with its front paws and bites its rump, the one in front claws its flank with its front paws and bites the deer's neck. Both lions have the manes of male lions, but the front one is identified as female by teats. The stag's legs are stretched out as if in a leap, and its head is turned towards its pursuer. He has no antlers, but is recognizable as a male young animal by an indicated erection.

The deer's hooves, the elongated hind legs of the lions and the tips of their tails were originally connected to the attacks and broke off with them. The structure of the group with the animals facing the same side defines a front and a back of the handle; the curvature of the group assigns the front to the inside of the pool. The smooth underside of the deer served as the grip surface of the handle.

literature

  • Werner Gauer : animal fighting group, pelvic handle . In: Alfred Mallwitz , Hans-Volkmar Herrmann (ed.): The finds from Olympia . German Archaeological Institute, Athens 1980, p. 120.
  • Werner Gauer: The bronze vessels from Olympia. Part 1: Kettles and basins with saucers, plates, craters, hydrates, buckets, situles and cisterns, scoops and various devices (= Olympic Research , Volume 20). de Gruyter, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-11-012737-7 , p. 240.

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