Brooch with Lion

Gold plated pin with a lion.

Herodotus (Historiai 7.121.1) reports that during Xerxes’ invasion of Greece in 480 BC, his army encountered several night attacks from lions as it crossed Macedonia. Xenophon in his work Kynigetikos (4th century BC) becomes more specific saying that the lions’ lairs were the mountains Hortiatis and Pangaeo. So it seems that the lions that once lived in our country were limited to Macedonia and Northern Greece in general.

Of course, the most famous lion of Greek mythology is that of Nemea, this mythical animal that spread terror in the northeastern Peloponnese and was killed by the bare hands of the first of the Greek heroes, Heracles. The skin of this lion, the lioness, was worn by the hero to protect him and is depicted with it in numerous representations on vases, reliefs, coins and seals from the 6th c. e.g. and since then.