Piraeus Lion

The lion was originally sculpted in about 360 BC,[3] and became a famous landmark in Piraeus, Athens, having stood there since the 1st or 2nd century AD.

[4] It is depicted in a sitting pose, with a hollow throat and the mark of a pipe (now lost) running down its back; this suggests that it was at some point used as a fountain.

The inscriptions were not recognised as runes until the Swedish diplomat Johan David Åkerblad identified them at the end of the 18th century.

They are in the shape of a lindworm (a flightless dragon with serpentine body and two or no legs) and were first translated in the mid-19th century by Carl Christian Rafn, the Secretary of the Kongelige Nordiske Oldskrift-Selskab (Royal Society of Nordic Antiquaries).

[10] Rafn's attempt is as follows, with the legible letters shown in bold and the reconstructed ones unbolded:[11][12] Right side of the lion: Left side of the lion: Some have tried to trace Harald Hardrada's name on the inscription, but the time it was carved does not coincide with his time in the service of the emperor.