Piraeus Lion

Coordinates: 45°26′5.22″N 12°20′59.34″E / 45.4347833°N 12.3498167°E / 45.4347833; 12.3498167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ancient Greek lion statue at the Arsenal, Venice.

The Piraeus Lion (

runic inscriptions on its shoulders and flanks; these were likely carved by Scandinavians sometime in the 11th century AD.[1]

History

It was originally located in

Piraeus Archaeological Museum and the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm
.

The lion was originally sculpted in about 360 BC,[3] and became a famous landmark in Piraeus, Athens, having stood there since the 1st or 2nd century AD. Its prominence was such that the port eventually became referred to in Italian as Porto Leone ("Lion Port") as the port's original name ceased to be used.[4] It is depicted in a sitting pose, with a hollow throat and the mark of a pipe (now lost) running down its back; this suggests that it was at some point used as a fountain.[5] This is consistent with the description of the statue from the 1670s, which said that water flowed from the lion's mouth into a cistern at its feet.[6]

In the second half of the 11th century, two

Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor
, or Vikings who travelled from Scandinavia around Europe’s Atlantic coastline.

Inscriptions and translations

Piraeus Lion drawing of curved lindworm. The runes on the lion tell of Swedish Varangians, mercenaries in the service of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Emperor.
Photo of inscription on right flank of lion (with contrast exaggerated to make inscription more visible).
Drawings of the inscription

The inscriptions were not recognised as runes until the Swedish diplomat Johan David Åkerblad identified them at the end of the 18th century. They are in the shape of a lindworm (a flightless dragon with serpentine body and two or no legs) and were first translated in the mid-19th century by Carl Christian Rafn, the Secretary of the Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab (Royal Society of Nordic Antiquaries).[9] The inscriptions are heavily eroded due to weathering, making many of the individual runes barely legible. This has required translators to reconstruct some of the runes, filling in the blanks to determine what words they represented.

There have been several attempts to decipher and translate the text. Below follow Rafn's early attempt (1854) and Eric Brate's attempt (1914), which is considered to be the most successful one.[10]

Rafn's translation

Rafn's attempt is as follows, with the legible letters shown in bold and the reconstructed ones unbolded:[11][12]

Right side of the lion:

  • ASMUDR : HJU : RUNAR : ÞISAR : ÞAIR : ISKIR : AUK: ÞURLIFR : ÞURÞR : AUK : IVAR : AT : BON : HARADS : HAFA : ÞUAT : GRIKIAR : UF : HUGSAÞU : AUK : BANAÞU :
    • Asmund cut these runes with Asgeir and Thorleif, Thord and Ivar, at the request of Harold the Tall, though the Greeks considered about and forbade it.

Left side of the lion:

  • HAKUN : VAN: ÞIR : ULFR : AUK : ASMUDR : AUK : AURN : HAFN : ÞESA : ÞIR : MEN : LAGÞU : A : UK : HARADR : HAFI : UF IABUTA : UPRARSTAR : VEGNA : GRIKIAÞIÞS : VARÞ : DALKR : NAUÞUGR : I : FIARI : LAÞUM : EGIL : VAR : I : FARU : MIÞ : RAGNARR : TIL : RUMANIU . . . . AUK : ARMENIU :
    • Hakon with Ulf and Asmund and Örn conquered this port. These men and Harold Hafi imposed a heavy fine on account of the revolt of the Greek people. Dalk is detained captive in far lands. Egil is gone on an expedition with Ragnar into Romania and Armenia.

Some have tried to trace Harald Hardrada's name on the inscription, but the time it was carved does not coincide with his time in the service of the emperor.[13]

Erik Brate's translation

Erik Brate's interpretation from 1914 is considered to be the most successful one.[10]

hiuku þir hilfninks milum
hna en i hafn þesi þir min
eoku runar at haursa bunta
kuþan a uah
riþu suiar þita linu
fur raþum kul uan farin
-
tri(n)kiar ristu runar
[a rikan strin]k hiuku
þair isk[il-] [þu]rlifr
-
litu auka ui[i þir a]
roþrslanti b[yku] -
a sun iuk runar þisar.
ufr uk - li st[intu]
a[t haursa]
kul] uan farn[10]
They cut him down in the midst of his
forces. But in the harbor the men cut
runes by the sea in memory of Horsi, a
good warrior.
The Swedes set this on the lion.
He went his way with good counsel,
gold he won in his travels.
The warriors cut runes,
hewed them in an ornamental scroll.
Æskell (Áskell) [and others] and
Þorlæifʀ (Þorleifr)
had them well cut, they who lived
in Roslagen. [N. N.] son of [N. N.]
cut these runes.
Ulfʀ (Úlfr) and [N. N.] colored them
in memory of Horsi.
He won gold in his travels.[10]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arsenale (Venice) - First Ancient Greek lion.

Literature

  • Sven B. F. Jansson
    , "Pireuslejonets runor", Nordisk Tidskrift för vetenskap konst och industri, utgiven av Letterstedtska Föreningen. Stockholm (1984).
  • Andrea C. Snow, "Transmuted: Reconciling the Medieval Scandinavian Marking of the Piraeus Lion." Viator 53, no. 2 (2022): 179–214.

References

  1. ISBN 0-486-43396-X
  2. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, Athens, The Acropolis, p.6/20, 2008, O.Ed.
  3. JSTOR 503610
    , p. 53
  4. ISBN 0-415-24370-X
  5. ^ Ellis, Henry (1833). The British Museum. Elgin and Phigaleian Marbles. British Museum. p. 36.
  6. ISSN 1404-9430
    . Retrieved 5 September 2010..
  7. ISBN 0-486-43396-X
  8. ^ "The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom) — Dragon" (notes), URL: BT-Dragon Archived 25 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ^ Rafn, Carl Christian (1857). "En Nordisk Runeindskrift i Piræus, med Forklaring af C. C. Rafn". Antiquarisk Tidsskrift: Udgivet af det Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab 1855-57. pp. 3–69.
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-674-64465-4
  11. ^ A. Craig Gibson, "Runic Inscriptions: Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian", in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, p. 130. Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1902
  12. ^ Rafn, Carl Christian (1856). "Inscription runique du Pirée - Runeindskrift i Piraeeus", Impr. de Thiele
  13. ISBN 0-85045-565-0

45°26′5.22″N 12°20′59.34″E / 45.4347833°N 12.3498167°E / 45.4347833; 12.3498167

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