Griffin Protome

625–575 BC

Griffin Protome, 625–575 BC. Greece, Ionian, 6th Century BC. Bronze; overall: 13.9 cm (5 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund 1927.146 This bird-like head and neck, with sharp beak and tongue, belongs to a griffin, a fantastic bird/lion hybrid prominently found in both Greek and Near Eastern artwork. Often, as here, the griffin has large upright ears (probably feline, in keeping with its lion body) as well as a knob-like projection atop its head. The scaly neck terminates in a flange once pierced with holes for connection to the shoulder of a large bronze cauldron, which would have been ornamented with three or more such griffins. Fossilized Protoceratops dinosaur bones may lie behind the eagle/lion form of the mythical griffin.