Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

A 166
Smaller lion’s head water spout from the Argive Heraion. Athens

Lion’s head water spout from the sima (frieze around bottom of lateral edge of roof) of the second temple to Hera at the Argive Heraion. Belonging to the smaller series of lion’s heads on the sima. Ca. 400 BC.

Marble
Architectural Element
H 22.8 cm, W 21 cm

From the Argive Heraion. Found in 1892 in the excavations carried out by the American School of Athens.
Greece, Athens, National Museum
Ca. 400 BC

Preservation:
The lion’s head is broken on all sides. At the bottom the break runs below the upper jaw and cuts through the larger teeth at the sides of the mouth. At the top, the head of the lion is fully preserved but the upper molding of the architecture to which it was attached is not. On the left side the break runs diagonally from the area of the temple upward and inward toward the center of the head. On the right side the break runs around the outside of the face. From front to back at the bottom of the piece, running through the mouth, is the upper curve of a rounded trough (for a water pipe).

Description:
The fragment depicts the upper portion of a lion’s head. The face of the lion projects from a mane, which falls in three tiers of locks. The lowest rows of locks is parted in the center. The hair to the left and the hair to the right of the mane’s part are rendered in two sections of parallel locks that mirror each other. On the right side, the ear, erect, is preserved. The brow bulges in sections; the lower areas of the brow hang over the eyes. The eyes are large round discs that are framed by an upper lid which is semi-circular and a lower lid that is almost horizontal. The nose is broad and marked at the bridge by a series of three deep creases. Below the nose, the whiskers are rendered by deeply engraved lines that curve backward upwards into the cheeks. The teeth central teeth are small and rounded. The teeth at the sides of the mouth were longer but have been broken.

Discussion:
This lion head waterspout comes from the sima of the second temple of Hera at the Argive Heraion. The Argive Heraion was a sanctuary located on the eastern part of the plain of Argos, five kilometers from Mycenae and ten from Argos. The temple, to which this fragment belonged, is generally dated ca. 400 BC. For a fuller discussion on the sanctuary and this temple, see cat. no. A 109 and for other sculpted fragments from the temple, see cat. nos. A 110-114, A 166, and A 167. The sima, the border around the sides of the temple below the roof, consisted of an elegant decoration of lotus plants, vegetal scrolls, and birds. This decoration in relief was punctuated by waterspouts shaped as lion’s heads in higher relief that served to drain water off the roof. Such waterspouts were not uncommon in Greek architecture. Fragments from the temple indicate that the lion head waterspouts were of two different sizes. This particular example is of a smaller size and is thought, therefore, to belong to a portion of the sima between columns. Julia Lenaghan

Bibliography:
C. Waldstein, Excavations of the American School of Athens at the Heraion of Argos, 1892 (London 1892) 15, pl. 7 brief descriptive catalogue-like entry
B. S. Ridgway, Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture (London 1997) 27-28 comments that such lion-heads were in origin from Magna Grecia