Piraeus lion Athens
Why were Scandinavian runes added to
the 3 metres tall marble lion statue made in 360 BC
in the port of Athens, city of famous philosophers?
The Piraeus lion of the Athens harbour was made c. 350 BC, the sculpture was eventually removed and taken to Venice. Are the runes concrete evidence that the “unwritten doctrines” of Plato were only unwritten and not secret? Was the marble lion inscribed with rune inscriptions in the 10th century by Scandinavians to celebrate 1,500 years of meditation practices based on the system of meditation originally taught by the Buddha, introduced into Greece by Pythagoras (Porphyry) and taught in Athens by successive philosophy teachers?
Piraeus lion Athens: the lion’s (quiet) roar
The Piraeus lion of the Athens harbour was made around 350 BC, around the same time when Greek philosopher Plato wrote his dialogues and started the Academy where “unwritten doctrines” were taught, thought to be lost to the world.
When rune symbols were inscribed onto the lion’s shoulders (most likely in the 10-11th century) the sacred temple sites and learning centres where Linear A and B clay tablets were made were already demolished. The clay tablets were the source of symbols later used as the 24 Elder Futhark, 16 Younger Futhark and 28 Anglo-Saxon Futhork rune alphabets. When the inscriptions were made the crusades to conquer Jerusalem were about to start and more crusades were extended to several areas in Europe including Scandinavia. The little understood crusades left Europe culturally devastated, after the 12-13th century the knowledge about the concepts represented by rune symbols gradually disappeared until there was no collective memory left of its meaning.
With the new digital revolution ancient scripts and text appear and are translated into English. The first hint is the similarity of numbers used for the rune alphabets that happen to be the same as essential concepts used in Buddhist training of Abhidhamma and meditation: 24 Paṭṭhāna factors, 16 Insight Knowledges and the list of “28 named Buddhas”. The rune symbols happen to coincide with concepts still used in meditation training, and when one applies definitions, also described in Old Norse rune poems to runes, it is still possible to develop a set of definitions that can be used to translate the runes, which were used to write votive messages.
The definitions of the runes as chosen coincide with the meaning portrayed by the images, the meaning only appear when they are read together, which makes it plausible that runes were a series of ideograms used to write votive messages, ranging from useful objects to coins and standing stones.The Piraeus lion runes need to be read in conjunction with other texts in the Lost Links series where the background history was thoroughly described, it is an addendum to the Rök rune stone, “Did Pythagoras make the Phaistos DIsk?” and “Etruscan: universal language of the heart”. In the text “Golden collars and the ‘E’ at Delphi” a startling discover was made: the definitions as used to described runes actually matched the paragraphs of an essay written by Plutarch c. 120 AD during the reign of Hadrian. As an object the runes inscribed on the Piraeus lion is evidence of the lost links of an alternative view of the same historical facts where the unwritten doctrines of Plato were only unwritten, not secret.
All contents is the personal view of the author.
Piraeus lion Athens
Rune inscriptions (sketch)
10-11th century Viking runes
on the
Lion Piraeus harbour c. 350 BC Athens
Images and details of runes found on the Wikipedia site: Piraeus Lion The marble statue of the lion was taken to Venice as war loot where it was placed as guard in front of the Arsenal. In this text the rune inscriptions are translated based on definitions developed after reading the rune poems and comparing many images – from ancient Greece to Viking rune stones. Finally the big breakthrough came: the historian and Neoplatonic philosopher Plutarch of Delphi wrote an essay “On the ‘E’ at Delphi” where each paragraph matched exactly the definitions that were chosen for the list of rune symbols. Coincidences on this scale do not happen: the runes had to be related to the mystic numbers of Pythagoras that were later taught as “unwritten doctrines” by Plato in his school, the Academy in Athens. The rune symbols are evidence of an intellectual network of knowledge that was present in Europe that can be explained based on historical facts. In the 6th century BC after the Buddha was enlightened Pythagoras became a follower and teacher of the meditation system, his teaching methods included drawings made on clay tablets now known as Linear A and B scripts. The “scribbles” were images – drawings made to explain meditation techniques to students, finally the system was refined into a user-friendly alphabet centuries later: the Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark and Anglo-Saxon Futhark rune alphabets. The runes on the lion of the Athens harbour were made to pay respects to the moment when the Buddha “roared his lion’s roar” in the Deer Park at Isipatana in India when he first explained to his followers the methods to practice to attain enlightenment, the “Dhamma Cakka Ppavattana Sutta”.