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Ierissos - Ιερισσός
The ubiquitous and persistent theme of the lion bull combat can be traced back to the figurate art of the third millennium, where the geometrical motifs are replaced by narrative symbolic representations, and the scene is characteristic of Near Eastern art in its infancy.
The earliest known depiction occurs on a ewer found at Uruk dated to the latter part of the Protoliterate period, circa 3300 BC. That ewer has a relief depiction of a lion attacking a bull from behind.
The scene became widely distributed by 500 BC, featuring prominently in the Achaemenid Empire, and in particular at the palace of Darios in Persepolis, where it occurs no fewer than twenty seven times, including on the main staircase leading to the imperial complex. Its frequent appearance in key locations strongly suggests an important symbolic significance, which unfortunately has not survived antiquity in any explicitly clear form.
Archaic Greek epic poetry, particularly in Homeric literature, wherein a lion attacking cattle or sheep is repeatedly employed as a simile for the aggression and valour of combatant heroes.
Agamemnon's victorious advance against the Trojans in the Iliad and Hektor's successful pursuit of the Achaeans are both likened to a lion triumphing over its hapless prey. In both of these cases the allusion is completed by the defeated being compared to fleeing prey animals.
In all, there are twenty five examples present in the Iliad of heroic warriors being compared to leonine aggressors, with the victims variously compared to boars, sheep, goats, bulls or deer. The repetition of this literary device is clearly demonstrative of how deeply rooted the imagery was in the Greek [and perhaps more generally human] consciousness.
Of further and great significance is the involvement of the gods as the primary instigators of heroic leonine aggression in almost every case, and as it is made clear that the lion itself is an animal that is divinely directed to its prey, so then is the lion attack a metaphor for divinely inspired heroic triumph.
Click for more coin images of the ancient city Akanthos.
The ubiquitous and persistent theme of the lion bull combat can be traced back to the figurate art of the third millennium, where the geometrical motifs are replaced by narrative symbolic representations, and the scene is characteristic of Near Eastern art in its infancy.
The earliest known depiction occurs on a ewer found at Uruk dated to the latter part of the Protoliterate period, circa 3300 BC. That ewer has a relief depiction of a lion attacking a bull from behind.
The scene became widely distributed by 500 BC, featuring prominently in the Achaemenid Empire, and in particular at the palace of Darios in Persepolis, where it occurs no fewer than twenty seven times, including on the main staircase leading to the imperial complex. Its frequent appearance in key locations strongly suggests an important symbolic significance, which unfortunately has not survived antiquity in any explicitly clear form.
Archaic Greek epic poetry, particularly in Homeric literature, wherein a lion attacking cattle or sheep is repeatedly employed as a simile for the aggression and valour of combatant heroes.
Agamemnon's victorious advance against the Trojans in the Iliad and Hektor's successful pursuit of the Achaeans are both likened to a lion triumphing over its hapless prey. In both of these cases the allusion is completed by the defeated being compared to fleeing prey animals.
In all, there are twenty five examples present in the Iliad of heroic warriors being compared to leonine aggressors, with the victims variously compared to boars, sheep, goats, bulls or deer. The repetition of this literary device is clearly demonstrative of how deeply rooted the imagery was in the Greek [and perhaps more generally human] consciousness.
Of further and great significance is the involvement of the gods as the primary instigators of heroic leonine aggression in almost every case, and as it is made clear that the lion itself is an animal that is divinely directed to its prey, so then is the lion attack a metaphor for divinely inspired heroic triumph.
Click for more coin images of the ancient city Akanthos.