Renowned Lion Statues of Ancient Greece to Be Replaced by Copy Cats

The long vigil of the lions of Delos is drawing to an end.

In the coming months, intricate plaster casts will be used to make replicas of the famous sculptures on the Terrace of the Lions that date from the 7th century BC.

The weather-battered originals are being moved into the Delos museum and the copies will take their place, gazing across an island that was one of the holiest sites of ancient Greece: home to the Temple of Apollo and the treasury of the Delian League.

“The intention is for them not to spend another winter in the open,” said Panagiotis Chadjidakis, an archeologist who has worked for more than a decade on Delos, a now deserted island about 90 miles southeast of Athens.

Assaults by gales, rain and sea salt since they were excavated at the turn of the century have eaten away layer after layer of the marble lions.

Out of at least nine original lions, only five were unearthed more or less intact. Parts of three others remain. The body of one more, taken by Venetians in the 17th century, now adorns the Arsenal at Venice, Italy, where a head was added.

In ancient times, there could have been as many as 19 lion statues standing guard at the mythological birthplace of the sun god Apollo and his twin sister Artemis, goddess of hunting and the moon.

Their mouths open in a silent roar, they sit on their haunches looking east. “They would have inspired awe. They would have been frightening” to those who went to worship at Delos, Chadjidakis said.

The use of lions, which were not indigenous to the Aegean, displayed the reach of ancient Greeks’ contact with North Africa and other regions.

“They have become a symbol of Delos,” Chadjidakis said.

The replacement project is an example of how archeologists are using carefully crafted copies to satisfy visitors seeking a natural setting for antiquities while saving original works from pollution and erosion.

In 1997, the 2nd century bronze statue of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius astride his horse in Rome was replaced by a copy. In Greece, a number of replicas have replaced ancient sculptures, including the famous female forms called Caryatids that support the Erechtheum porch on the Acropolis. The originals are on display at the Acropolis Museum.

But many traditional methods of creating copies can damage monuments.

“Some of the best copies are made by coating the marble in soap and talc and then applying the plaster directly, but this damages the original,” preservationist Theodoros Kaigiorgis said. “You get a very good copy, but a bad original.”

The Delos lions presented a particular problem, being carved from porous marble from the nearby island of Naxos.

To make the casts, the lions were first covered with highly malleable pewter foil for protection. The statues were then gradually covered in plaster of Paris, with preservationists making plaster wedges for tricky spots like the mouth or hind legs.

“It is a method which has exceptional results. The monument is not harmed in the least,” said Lina Mendoni, general secretary of the Culture Ministry.

In Athens, a silicone mold will be made from each Delos plaster copy. From that, a new lion statue will be cast in artificial stone whose ingredients include cement and ground Naxos marble. The copy will be an exact imprint, right down to the cracks.

“We won’t alter them at all. We shouldn’t,” said Nikos Matoulas, another member of the preservation team that wrapped up the first phase of the yearlong project in early October.

The originals, weighing up to 4,400 pounds each, will be moved into the island’s museum using a system of rail tracks.

The lions “will be set up in exactly the same way, the same order, facing the same way” as they were outside, said Liana Parlama, coordinator of the Delos Committee.

It’s not clear, however, how the lions were displayed in antiquity-- whether or not they were on pedestals like those built for them by the French archeologists who uncovered them.

Archeologists will excavate the area once the originals are in the museum, looking for clues. If they find evidence the sculptures were placed on the ground in antiquity, archeologists will face a dilemma over displaying them now.

“What do you do? Do you put them on the rock, in which case the well-known image we have of Delos is changed?” Mendoni asked. “There, an issue is created concerning our aesthetics.”