The Judgment of Animals in Classical Greece: Animal Sculpture and ...

ehavior, the description of Hector seizing Cebriones’ corpse by the head and holding it
strong appears to be direct reproduction of such behavior. It thus brings immediately to
mind the statue of the Kerameikos lion, which cradles the head of its prey, and may
suggest that its conception as an image was perhaps a conscious, fourth-century Greek
attempt to recreate visually or “connect with” the heroic past as recorded by Homer. 204
Anatomy of the Kerameikos Lion
Notwithstanding this possible connection, the inconsistent style of the
Kerameikos lion is an aspect that has not escaped scholarly attention. Willemsen, for
example, points out that its musculature and facial expression are naturalistic, whereas
the absence of a neck, lower back, backbone, and undevelopedness of its legs (die
Unentwickeltheit der Biene) stand out as its non-naturalistic features, and also as
evidence of unskilled craftsmanship. 205 To these features, one can add, Willemsen says,
those of motionlessness and compactness, which strengthen the impression of a poorly
male begins to feed at the groin. The animal dies after 4 minutes and the male eats alone, the others
waiting until he finishes at 1710. After than the lionesses feed, but 15 minutes later the male suddenly
chases them from the carcass and guards it until 1840 when he permits the others to join him.”
Additionally, he notes (267-268) that, in cases where the prey is large in size such as adult zebras, lions,
usually two, drag the carcass to a location and then feed on it. This report recalls Homer’s description of
the behavior of two lions adorning the shield of Achilles: “But two terrible lions were holding a loudlowing
bull, and he, bellowing mightily, was being dragged by them, while after him pursued the dogs and
young men. The lions had torn the hide of the great bull, and were devouring the inner parts and the black
blood” (Homer, Il. 18.579-18.581; translation: A. T. Murray, ed., tr., Homer. Iliad II [Cambridge, Mass.
and London, 1999] 331).
204 For a recent discussion of how the Greeks “visualized and re-created their past, especially the remote
past, in images and objects,” see J. Boardman, The Archaeology of Nostalgia. How the Greeks Re-Created
their Mythical Past (London, 2002) 7, and also 114 for “special properties attributed to some creatures as a
result of their encounter with the heroic past,” for example, the pseudo-Aristotelian account (De
Mirabilibus 70) that frogs are quieter in Seriphos because once they had annoyed Heracles.
205 Willemsen, Die Löwenkopf-Wasserspeier 54.
131