The Sphinxes Guarding the Lion Tomb Entrance at Amphipolis

[Paralus]

Perhaps a "PM me" would do the job. Posting an article under copyright - particularly should that copyright be US - is fraught.

[Taphoi]

Apparently there were sphinxes on the throne of Eurydice I (below), though now stolen. Perhaps a pattern is emerging of sphinxes on the thrones of queens of Macedon in the second half of the 4th century BC. I wonder whether that might have inspired the Amphipolis Lion Tomb sculptor or his patrons?
The "Robber Hole" is being suggested to be earthquake subsidence in some quarters.
Best wishes,
Andrew

[Paralus]

The "Robber Hole" is being suggested to be earthquake subsidence in some quarters.

Here's hoping those quarters are correct.

[amyntoros]

I haven't a clue how to set up a poll so I won't call Marcus out on that one. Wouldn't be able to vote anyway because I'm really not leaning in any particular direction. It's a bit like 'pass the parcel' at this point with the archaeologists ripping away (okay, carefully preserving) the outer layers. However, once they've made it into the actual tombs I wouldn't be surprised if we all still disagree about the occupants.

Apparently there were sphinxes on the throne of Eurydice I (below), though now stolen. Perhaps a pattern is emerging of sphinxes on the thrones of queens of Macedon in the second half of the 4th century BC. I wonder whether that might have inspired the Amphipolis Lion Tomb sculptor or his patrons?

It's an interesting theory. Renditions of sphinxes were to be found in Greek tombs and on vases depicting mourning as early as the fifth century BC. See this article in which there is much debate about the vases but the relationship between sphinxes and death/tombs is undeniable, IMO. And why would we want to deny it anyway, given the sphinxes found in various Macedonian tombs. It's that queen/female relationship that I'm not sure about. There's a difference between 'this tomb has sphinxes so it is probably a queen' and 'all the known/believed tombs of Macedonian queens contain sphinxes'. It could be that the Macedonians relegated sphinx portrayal to the tombs of females only. There's that tomb in Aigai excavated by Professor K. Rhomaios in which there was a richly and artistically crafted marble throne, and an exceptional footstool, with sphinxes carved in the round and painted decoration. I suppose it might be the tomb of a woman and therefore the tomb of a queen even though almost every site on the web insists on calling this a minor tomb for some reason.

Best regards,

[Taphoi]

The tombs with the sphinx thrones (Eurydice I and Rhomaios) are in a patch of the royal cemetery at Aegae known as the Queens' Cluster as noted above and below.
Best wishes,
Andrew

Plan of Aegae.

AegaeMap.jpg (96.59 KiB) Viewed 86311 times

[amyntoros]

The tombs with the sphinx thrones (Eurydice I and Rhomaios) are in a patch of the royal cemetery at Aegae known as the Queens' Cluster as noted above and below.
Best wishes,
Andrew

AegaeMap.jpg

Ah, well then it would make sense for you to be rooting for Olympias and/or Roxane, along with (probably) the entirety of Greece. The waiting for the 'revelation' is so annoying, even though it is completely understandable.

Best Regards,

[agesilaos]

It should be pointed out that the Queen's cluster contains at least one man and 'The Lady of Aigai' who seems to have been a priestess rather than a queen; instead of running away with two instances of female burials with sphinxes perhaps we should establish whether any male burials have any sphinx ornamentation; there should be a much larger sample to work with, though we are still only talking a dozen or so burials, if one considers all the mid fourth to mid third century burials and no males have sphinx ornamentation then there is something to consider. Who was in the Lycian sarcophagos for a start? Was it a woman?

[gepd]

A nice view of the excavation site:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Js7KBBek_G0#t=24

[hiphys]

Wow! Now I realize it's as big as Hadrian's Mausoleum in Rome!
Thank you for posting it.

[Taphoi]

Below is an Attic Lekythos of c400BC found near Taman and now in the Hermitage. I post it because it shows how the wings of the Amphipolis sphinxes might have been arranged so as to fit within the arch of the tomb entrance. Found in a female cemetery and has a headdress of 8-petal rosettes too.

Attic Sphinx c400BC

SphinxLekythos.jpg (35.51 KiB) Viewed 86214 times

Best wishes,
Andrew

[amyntoros]

A favor is asked of anyone who uses Firefox. Please go to the following site which has the clearest and most unadulterated photograph of both 'sphinxes'.

http://www.newsbomb.gr/politismos/story ... ystika-tis

Then click on the three horizontal bars on the Firefox header. On the drop down menu please click on the plus sign and increase the image of the page to 300%. (You may be able to do this also on Windows, but I don't use it so I don't know.) Anyway, once at 300% please tell me what you think of the chest area of the sphinx on the left. It looks to me like a face, but that may just be a piece of "man on the moon" imagery. If the imagery is accidental then it is obvious that a 'breast', if removed from the figure, was chiseled off and not hacked with a large instrument.

If anyone is wondering, I'm not 100% that these are sphinxes. Everything pertaining to the placement of wings would also work on griffins. And some images of griffins have very full chest areas. There's this one which is a copy of an ancient griffin, but note the chest area anyway. Then there's the following two images from Jonah'sLivius page for Lysimachus and the The Belevi mausoleum .

Not exactly breasts on these griffins, but if one attacked or accidentally damaged the chest curvature then it could appear that breasts had been removed.





Someone needs to find the heads!

Best regards,

[Taphoi]

Here are a couple of images to help people see the breast damage. The damage is a) in the locations where breasts would be, b) breast-shaped (round), c) breast-sized, d) repeated in the same vicinities on both sphinxes, e) it can be seen to be repeated in both breast positions on the left sphinx, f) there is clear protrusion with shadow around the base of the protrusion just before the truncation by the damage in the case of the left sphinx. Personally, I find the conclusion that the breasts of both sphinxes have been deliberately mutilated to be inescapable.

High contrast sphinx breasts

highcontrastsphinxes.jpg (55.22 KiB) Viewed 86188 times

Left sphinx oblique view showing two breast-sized and breast-positioned patches of destruction

leftsphinx.jpg (19.76 KiB) Viewed 86188 times

Best wishes,
Andrew

[agesilaos]

Amyntoros, it looks just like the mask of Agamemnon! They have found Troy!!! It is an illusion, of course.

[Callisto]

Some pics of Sphinxes are found here:

http://www.lifo.gr/team/politismos/50996

[gepd]

The aerial video of the tomb from the same source, but now also in HD plus some extra shots of the region:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ0Uw1xbEqE