DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4377#0167
LION TOMB. 497
would be about half a century later. I had hoped
that this comparison might have been by this time
effected by means of casts from the fragments!
which, with unaccountable apathy, the Greek
government suffers to remain at Chseronea, ex-
posed to weather and accident. But as yet this
hope has been unfulfilled, and those who have
not examined the remains of the Chajronea lion
in situ can only form their idea of it from the
descriptions of travellers.
Colonel Mure, in the description already referred
to, observes that this monument " possesses the
affecting peculiarity of being erected, not as usual,
to commemorate the victory, but the misfor-
tune of the warriors whose bodies repose in the
soil beneath—the valour, not the success of their
struggle for liberty;" and, he adds, that "the
artist, with an accurate perception of the affecting
specialty of the case, has given to the countenance
of the animal that expression of fierceness, and of
humiliation, of rage, sorrow, and shame, which
would agitate the breasts of proud Hellenic free-
men on such a defeat."1
In support of this criticism, I would quote a
remark, made to me by one profoundly conversant
with Greek art;™ namely, that the lion of Chseronea,
being the emblem of a defeat, is placed in an
1 Compare Welcker's remarks in the Memoir referred to note >>.
"' The late Sir Thomas Wyse, who, during his long residence
at Athens as British minister, lost no opportunity of exerting
his influence for the promotion of archaeological research and for
the preservation of the few ancient monuments still extant in
Greece.
would be about half a century later. I had hoped
that this comparison might have been by this time
effected by means of casts from the fragments!
which, with unaccountable apathy, the Greek
government suffers to remain at Chseronea, ex-
posed to weather and accident. But as yet this
hope has been unfulfilled, and those who have
not examined the remains of the Chajronea lion
in situ can only form their idea of it from the
descriptions of travellers.
Colonel Mure, in the description already referred
to, observes that this monument " possesses the
affecting peculiarity of being erected, not as usual,
to commemorate the victory, but the misfor-
tune of the warriors whose bodies repose in the
soil beneath—the valour, not the success of their
struggle for liberty;" and, he adds, that "the
artist, with an accurate perception of the affecting
specialty of the case, has given to the countenance
of the animal that expression of fierceness, and of
humiliation, of rage, sorrow, and shame, which
would agitate the breasts of proud Hellenic free-
men on such a defeat."1
In support of this criticism, I would quote a
remark, made to me by one profoundly conversant
with Greek art;™ namely, that the lion of Chseronea,
being the emblem of a defeat, is placed in an
1 Compare Welcker's remarks in the Memoir referred to note >>.
"' The late Sir Thomas Wyse, who, during his long residence
at Athens as British minister, lost no opportunity of exerting
his influence for the promotion of archaeological research and for
the preservation of the few ancient monuments still extant in
Greece.