Felines in Thracian Art *

doi: 10.2143/AWE.12.0.2994452 AWE 12 (2013) 269-279

FELINES IN THRACIAN ART *

JAN BOUZEK

Abstract A number of metal vases from Thrace are discussed, especially a lion plaque from Pistiros and several metal objects in Prague collections, together with other representations of lions in Thrace and Scythia. The evidence shows that in Thrace strong influence from Persian-Anatolian spheres had existed since the 6th century, besides the Greek impact, and that this ‘Oriental’ tinge persisted in Thracian art until the end of the Hellenistic period.

The publication of an exhibition catalogue with sensational and previously unknown items from the Bojkov collection,1 the new find of a lion plaque at Pistiros2 and the renewed examination of two items in Prague – the handle of a bronze hydria from a Magna Graecia workshop and the frontal of a horse harness with a lynx’s head – give a good occasion to return to a field which offers rich material for studying interrelations between Thracian, Greek, Persian and Scythian art.3

The Prague Hydria-Handle with Lion’s Head (Figs. 1–5) National Museum Prague inv. no. A 977, H. 17.4 cm, W. 15.9 cm, D. of the rim of the hydria, 22 cm. Bought in Paris in the 1930s with alleged provenance Bulgaria. It was published in detail by the present author;4 here it is put into broader context. The lion’s head has an open muzzle with outstretched tongue, five whiskers on each side of the muzzle and deeply drilled eyes; the mane is depicted in two rows of tassels of hairs. On the top of the handle and on its outer side is a rib with pearls. The lateral rosettes have nine incurved petals each. Nails for attachment to the vessel are in both arms of the rim; a third is in the base of the handle. The beginnings of the school to which the handle belongs are Peloponnesian: Laconian,5 not Corinthian.6 But our handle is much later, from the time when Sparta stopped producing fine metal vessels. The Prague hydria belongs to a category of which Diehl listed 11 items;7 of them, the examples in the National Museum in Ancona8 and in the Cluj Museum9 are near to

* This paper was prepared in the frames of a project supported by a grant from the Grants Agency of the Czech Republic (405/11/098). 1 Marazov 2011. 2 Bouzek 2010a. 3 See Bouzek 2006. 4 Bouzek 2005. 5 Stibbe 2000; 2004. 6 Pace Croissant 1988; cf. Rolley 2003. 7 Diehl 1964, 216–22. 8 Neugebauer 1923–24, 371, fig. 10; Diehl 1964, pl. 7B. 9 Neugebauer 1923–24, 378–79, fig. 14.

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Fig. 1: Hydria handle, National Museum, Fig. 2: Hydria handle, National Museum, Prague, bronze. Prague, bronze.

Fig. 3: Hydria handle, National Museum, Fig. 4: Hydria handle, National Museum, Prague, bronze. Prague, bronze.

Fig. 5: Hydria handle, National Museum, Prague, bronze.

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the Prague handle, as is another on the vase found on the Athenian Acropolis.10 The main group showing close parallels comes from the heroon of Paestum, constructed in ca. 500 BC.11 Archi- tectonic lion heads on several Greek late 6th-century BC buildings in South Italy (Paestum Basilica and the Temple of Heracles at Agrigent)12 and Greece (Alcamaeonidae temple, Treas- ury of the Massilians)13 are also very similar. A handle similar to that in Prague was found in Bulgaria at Staro Selo near Sliven;14 most of the Trebenishte vessels are earlier.15 The handle in the National Museum in Prague was very probably made in the workshop tradition recon- structed by Rolley,16 which started production at Sybaris and, after its destruction, continued since 500 BC at Paestum. A date of ca. 490 BC seems to be the most probable. The recumbent lion found near Breznik17 probably came from the rim of a cauldron – it is good Peloponnesian work of the late 6th century; while those on spouts of situlae form a series starting in the early 5th and ending in the late 4th century.18 The earrings with lion heads19 are standard Greek ornaments, and like bronze vessels, they were made for a common market, not especially for Thrace.

The Duvanli Lions and Later Examples in Thrace The Duvanli tumuli provide a good basis for following two lines of representation at the beginning of the 5th century. While the famous amphora-rhyton from Kukova mogila has on one of its handles a typical Persian, or rather, Persian-Anatolian lion,20 the pectoral with a lion whose head is seen from above from Bashova mogila21 probably took its model from a Greek coin – it belongs to the first examples of a genuine Thracian tradition, based on North Aegean and Ionian models, whereas the inspiration at Trebenishte, in contrast, was mainly Corinthian The Garchinovo ‘matrix’22 is in the northern Animal Style, near to Scythian art. The earliest rhyton with a lion’s head in the Bojkov collection23 is stylistically very close to the Duvanli amphora-rhyton; while the second rhyton with a similar finial in the same collection24 (Fig. 6) has its lion’s head strongly Graecised: it dates from ca. 400 BC and can well be compared with the lion spouts of Greek temples of the late 5th century.

10 Ridder 1986, 56, no. 167. 11 Rolley 1982, 64; 1983, figs. 126–127. 12 Mertens-Horn 1988, cat, nos. 49 and 13, pls. 1 and 20. 13 Mertens-Horn 1988, 45–46, pl. 7b and 49, pl. 8bd. 14 Venedikov and Gerasimov 1973, pls. 94–96. 15 See now Stibbe and Vasic 2003. 16 Rolley 1982. 17 Venedikov and Gerasimov 1973, fig. 93. 18 Venedikov and Gerasimov 1973, fig. 111. 19 For example Venedikov and Gerasimov 1973, figs. 176–177, 183. 20 Basel Catalogue 2007, 176, no. 124. 21 Basel Catalogue 2007, 178, no. 125a. 22 Venedikov and Gerasimov 1973, fig. 152, 5th century. 23 Marazov 2011, no. 24. 24 Marazov 2011, no. 46.

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Fig. 6: Rhyton with lion protome, Bojkov collection, silver (after Marazov 2011, no.46).

Fig. 7: Rhyton with lion protome, Bojkov Fig. 8: Rhyton with lynx protome, Bojkov collection, silver (after Marazov 2011, no. 169). collection, silver (after Marazov 2011, no.170).

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The sheath of a sword in the Bojkov collection25carries two representations of lions – one attacking a boar and the second a goat. Both remind one of scenes on 6th-century Greek pottery, though the stylistic parallels point towards later 5th-century Greek models. There are also some vague reminiscences in the less sophisticated ateliers of 4th-century Scythian objects. The dating by Marazov into the second half of the 4th century seems to be reason- able, but the strange composition of scenes and motifs, together with stylistic incoherence, throw some doubt as to whether this is genuine Thracian work. Modern forgeries of golden objects also feature among the items in the Ukrainian Platter collection and even more of them appear now on the market. The quarry of the rider on a plate in the Bojkov collection26 is a bear, not a lion, but the scene derives from Persian tradition of the royal lion-hunt. A similarly strong tradition of Persian-Anatolian art can be seen on the Pistiros lion plaque and on the Pistiros gem imprint of a hunting dog. Unlike Greece, Thracian art still had strong ties with that of the Persian Anatolian satrapies in the 4th century BC. The rhytons with lion and lynx protomes in the Bojkov collection27 (Figs. 7–8), if found in Bulgaria, show that this tradition continued here still in middle Hellenistic times, against what we believed earlier, and join the 4th-century artistic tradition with that of the phalerae. In the artistic province of the Triballoi, the goddess riding a lioness on one of the Rogozen pitchers28 falls into Dionysiac or Cybele cult context, while another shows a lion attacking a hind,29 a subject related to Getic and Scythian Animal Style. I recall also the Garchinovo ‘matrix’ mentioned above. In North Getic art the species of the predators are less clearly characterised, but the lion is at least a plausible candidate in some cases, as also on horse-trappings, forming a larger province from central and northern Thrace up to the western Ukraine.30

Bronze Lion Appliqué from Pistiros (Figs. 9–10) The figure is made separately and attached to a plaque of sheet bronze. Most probably it served originally as part of a belt – it may have been placed near to the finial. The nose of the figure is damaged, but the outline was preserved in the imprint in the patina when found, before restoration. Dimensions, 5.3 x 4 cm; thickness of the plaque, 2–3 mm. The attached lion in its outline is ca. 4.8 cm long, 3.7 cm high and nearly 2 mm thick. Here was a fine dark patina after conservation, being before grainy light green. It was found on the paving in sector B 11, just in the small space between two paving stones. B 11 SE, spit IX, [8010]. It seems to have been left on the uncleaned paving after the catastrophe around 310/300 BC, i.e. its stratigraphical position was in the debris from the second part of the 4th century, between Philip II’s destruction of the emporion and the later one. It served as a belt ornament. In Greece such decorative ornaments were worn only by women, but

25 Marazov 2011, no. 66. 26 Marazov 2011, no. 133. 27 Marazov 2011, nos. 159–160. 28 Basel Catalogue 2007, no. 120E. 29 Basel Catalogue 2007, no. 120J. 30 Bouzek and Domaradzka 2009.

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Thracians used figural motives on their parade armour, and in our case the belt might have fastened the linen corselet of a Thracian peltast. The animal is rather massive, with short legs, round head and elaborated mane of a type popular in the second half of the 4th century BC.

Scythia Close parallels are known from Graeco-Scythian toreutics, notably on the Kul Oba globular vessel with animal frieze, where a lion attacks a boar.31 The Volkovcy lion32 is in a different attitude, but it was also attached to a (textile?) sheet. The relief is in repoussé, some details of the mane’s badly preserved whiskers seem to have been stamped. Other parallels for this milieu show heads of lions, also similar to the stylisation of our piece. One of them is the Velka Bliznitsa bracelet with ends in the shape of lionesses.33 The bracelet from Panticapaeum Slab Tomb 1854 is earlier, but the heads of lions not much different.34 Other similar bracelets are in the museums in Tübingen, New York and Munich.35 While the engraving technique was popular in the 5th century,36 in the 4th century repoussé took the lead.

Lions and the Royal Hunt The lion was popular with the Persians, Thracians and Macedonians, especially as a subject of the royal hunt. Lions were rare animals, and hunting them, unlike hunting boars, was only for the upper elite. As such the animal is represented on a pebble mosaic at Pella,37 in the so-called Philip II tomb in Vergina and on the Alexander sarcophagus from Sidon. The seated lions in the large sculpture from Chaironeia,38 a second from Piraeus in Venice and the lion Piraeus Museum no. 2077 are of the same general type and roughly contemporary with our lion, whose stylisation of mane and nose (only in its imprint in the patina preserved with it) is generally similar to those in marble. In Thracian Odrysian art there are no exact parallels, and in other Thracian local schools even less.

31 For example Trofimova 2007, 248, no. 197. 32 See Treister 2001, 40, fig. 67. 33 Artamonov and Forman 1970, pl. 313; cf. also Deppert-Lippitz 1985, figs. 139–140. 34 Deppert-Lippitz 1985, 48, fig. 56. 35 Pfrommer 1990, pl. 37.4–6 (New York and Munich): TA 98 late 4th, TA 1, early 3rd century (his numbers). 36 Grach 1985, 7–8, 13–14; Strong 1966, 89. 37 Petsas 1978, 52, fig. 14. 38 See Lippold, 1950, 286 (shortly after the battle in 338 BC).

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Fig. 9: Plaque with lion from Pistiros, bronze. Fig. 10: Plaque with lion from Pistiros, bronze.

Fig. 11: Handle of a bronze hydria, Charles Fig. 12: Front decoration of horse harness, University, Prague. Charles University, Prague, silver.

Persian Art and the Impact of its Ionian-Anatolian Version on Thracian Art Our lion is Greek/Macedonian work rather than Odrysian, near to Persian models, while from the northern Black Sea good parallels to the style can also be found. Unlike Greece, where Persian influence was only of marginal importance,39 it marked the beginning of Thracian art already in Duvanli’s late 6th-century horizon and continued until the time of

39 Boardman 2011.

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Alexander. Even the gem imprints known from Pistiros (hunting dog,40 another with a lion’s head) suggest that Eastern influence was still strong; and here too belongs the prefer- ence for tubular mugs. According to ancient literary sources, lions still lived in Archaic Thrace, and at least symbolically the royal hunt was popular in Persia and Macedonia,41 but most representations of lions in Thrace derived from Greek and Persian models; the latter seem to have prevailed. The Prague hydria handle with a protome of a Siren42 (Fig. 11) has good slightly earlier parallels from Nova Machala near Nova Zagora43 and from Ruec;44 and compare also the item from Pastusha near Plovdiv.45 The upper finial of the handle was often with the head of a lion, but here the top is missing. The handle belongs to the second half of the 5th century.

The Lynx The lynx was a popular animal for decoration of the frontals of decorative horse harnesses. One item reputedly from eastern Serbia (from the collection of Prof. Antonín Salac) is kept in Charles University, Prague: it is of silver and 6.5 cm high (Fig. 12). Above and below the lynx’s head there are palmettes with tendrils; the rim of the object is decorated with a relief line, short strokes and pearls. The lynx was not commonly used to decorate the frontals of horse harnesses. Several examples of felines on these appliqués are illustrated in the Finnish Thracian exhibition catalogue (Sinjeva mogila near Shipka; Kralevo; probably also Letnitsa, and Dolna Kozmitsa).46 All date from the second half of the 4th century to ca. 300 BC and the Prague lynx may also best be dated to the late 4th century. Among the newly published items from the Bojkov collection are one frontal appliqué with a lynx’s head,47 also from the late 4th century, and even a rhyton with a lynx protome48 (Fig. 8), probably of 2nd-century BC date, but also in a more Oriental than Greek stylisation. Horse-trappings in Thracian Animal Style have a very broad distribution against the local Thracian schools,49 probably caused by the horse trade,50 as was the case of the later large area of distribution of phalerae.51

40 Ondrejová 2007. 41 Seyer 2007. 42 Marsa 1970. Length 17.4 cm; width 7.3 cm; height of the Siren 7.4 cm. Thick green patina. 43 Venedikov and Gerasimov 1973, fig. 99. 44 Venedikov and Gerasimov 1973, fig. 104. 45 Venedikov 1964, 95–98, figs. 22–25; Diehl 1964, nos. B 91–B 92. 46 Muinainen Traakia 2000: Sinjeva at 117, fig. 176; Kralevo at 128, fig. 203; Letnitsa at 93, fig. 96; Dolna Kozmitsa at 94, fig. 95. 47 Marazov 2011, no. 150. 48 Marazov 2011, no. 160. 49 Bouzek 2006. 50 Bouzek and Domaradzka 2009. 51 Bouzek 2010b.

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Fig. 13: Silver rhyton, National Museum, Prague.

Fig. 14: Silver rhyton, National Museum, Prague.

Thracian art was influenced by the art of the Greeks and of the Persians as well; it took its models also from Scythian Animal Style, while some links with pre-Achaemenid toreutics existed too.52 Newly published objects in the Bojkov collection show that there was continu- ity in the fields of Eastern inspiration – and in particular qualities of Thracian style – during the whole Hellenistic period. This phenomenon lasted until the time of the phalerae, and in funeral rites it continued even beyond, in the Roman province of Thracia. The develop- ment of representations of lions is characteristic of the artistic tradition in Thrace, influenced from Greece, Anatolia and from the North Pontic region, too.

52 See Bouzek 2006, 318–21.

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Addendum T. Stojanov suggests that the Prague silver rhyton (with an alleged provenance from Bulgaria)53 once had wings, and detailed examination of the original confirms this sugges- tion (Figs. 13–14): it was Pegasus, as are its parallels. The dating to the later 4th century still stands.

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53 Best illustrations in Svoboda and Concev 1956, pls. 1–8.

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Institute of Classical Archaeology Charles University Celetna 20 110 00 Prague 1 Czech Republic [email protected]

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