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Wastias: the lion of Thebes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2023

Nikolaos Papazarkadas
Nikolaos Papazarkadas*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
*
E-mail: papazarkadas@berkeley.edu
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Abstract

This article offers the first comprehensive presentation of a monumental funerary lion found approximately 60 years ago in Thebes. Remarkably, the stone lion’s breast is inscribed with the name of the deceased, Ϝαστίας. On numismatic, epigraphic and historical grounds, I identify this Wastias as the homonymous magistrate appearing on staters of the Boiotian koinon in ca. 400 BC, but also as Astias, one of the leading Laconizing Theban politicians on the eve of the Corinthian War (Hellenica Oxyrhynchia 20.1–2). Wastias’ death can be very plausibly placed in 395 BC, the year of the battle of Haliartos. The proposed association is supported by a stylistic analysis of the monument, which thus becomes one of the best-dated sculpted lions of the Classical period. My contextual analysis of the monument reaffirms the notoriously oligarchic orientation of Theban politics. It also prompts a re-examination of other funerary lions, most notably its regional successor in the lion of Chaironeia. It concludes with a reflection on the nature of individual versus collective commemorative practices.

Keywords

Astias/WastiasBattle of HaliartosHellenica Oxyrhynchialion of ChaironeiaThebes
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 142 , November 2022 , pp. 298 - 316
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

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