Latest / The History of Greece: Philosophy, Empire, and Endless Reinvention — Fexingo History / The Piraeus Lion: A Runestone in Athens
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked quite a bit about Athenian monuments — the Parthenon, the Agora, the Long Walls. But there's one that's been sitting in plain sight for centuries, and it connects Athens to Vikings. Luna: Vikings in Athens? That's not a combination I expected. Lucas: It's the Piraeus Lion. A huge marble lion, about three meters tall, that guarded the harbor of Piraeus from at least the 4th century BCE. It was already ancient when the Romans ruled. But in the 11th century, some Norse mercenaries carved runes all over it. Luna: Wait — Norse mercenaries? In Greece? Lucas: Absolutely. The Varangian Guard was the personal bodyguard of the Byzantine emperor, made up mostly of Scandinavians and later Anglo-Saxons. These guys fought in Sicily, in Anatolia, and yes, they passed through Athens. And while they were docked at Piraeus, they left their mark on that lion. Lucas: The runic inscription is now mostly illegible due to erosion, but when it was first recorded in the 17th century, scholars could make out names like 'Hrafn' and 'Asmund'. It reads something like 'Hrafn and Asmund and... carved this lion'. It's a classic runestone formula, just in Greek marble. Luna: So they were essentially graffiti-ing a thousand-year-old statue. Lucas: Exactly. And the lion survived there until 1687, during the Morean War between Venice and the Ottoman Empire. The Venetian general Francesco Morosini bombarded the Parthenon — we've talked about that — but he also looted the Piraeus Lion and shipped it back to Venice. Luna: He took the lion too? That feels on brand for Morosini. Lucas: Very on brand. He wanted to decorate the Venetian Arsenal with classical trophies. So the lion ended up at the entrance of the Arsenal, where it still stands today. And there, in Venice, it was rediscovered by Scandinavian scholars in the 18th and 19th centuries who realized it had runes. Lucas: The Danish runologist Ludvig Wimmer studied it, and it became a sensation in the Nordic countries — proof that Vikings had reached the heart of the classical world. There's even a legend that a Swedish king tried to get it back. Luna: Did they ever consider returning it to Athens? Lucas: There have been discussions, but nothing concrete. The lion is now a Venetian landmark, and the Greek government hasn't pushed as hard as they have for the Parthenon Marbles. Still, it's a fascinating object — it ties together ancient Greek sculpture, Byzantine military history, Norse exploration, and early modern looting. Lucas: And there's a weird epilogue. In the 1990s, a Swedish artist named Carl Michael von Hausswolff made a recording of himself screaming into the lion's mouth, claiming it was an 'exorcism'. That's a whole other story. Luna: Okay, that's definitely going in a future episode. Lucas: Honestly, if today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps us ad-free and lets us dive into weird tangents like screaming at lions. Luna: Yeah, listener support really makes episodes like this possible. Lucas: So anyway, next time you look at a classical statue, remember: someone might have carved runes into it a thousand years ago. And that's the kind of history that makes you see the past as connected, not divided. Luna: I'll never look at a marble lion the same way again.