Pair of Protomes Depicting the Forepart of a Griffin

The great holy sites of ancient Greece, such as the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia and the Heraion of Samos, functioned as repositories for gifts brought by believers seeking divine favor. The most impressive of these offerings were large bronze cauldrons, which were set on a conical stand or tripod base and embellished with cast-bronze attachments like these two griffins. These beasts, facing outward, would have been fastened to the vessel by means of the rivets still present on their collars. They are remarkable for the superb quality of their craftsmanship, their condition, and their partially preserved inlaid eyes.
The iconographic inspiration for the ferocious griffin (a feline creature with a beak), which the Greeks revered for its powers of protection, was probably the fossilized remains of four-legged, bird-beaked dinosaurs that once roamed Central Asia. Traders may have come across them in their travels around the Gobi Desert and, having no knowledge of the paleontological past, created a story to account for the strange creatures.