Cleveland Museum of Art

Griffin Protome

Date

625–575 BCE

Medium

bronze

Culture

Greece, Ionian

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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.

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