ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 7TH-LATE 6TH CENTURY B.C.

Cast griffin protomes were often attached to the rims of cauldrons. Similar griffin protomes were cast on Samos and dedicated at the Heraion on the island. Olympia and Etruria also manufactured similar vessels, and they have also been found elsewhere including at Athens, Argos, Ephesus and Rhodes. Herodotus in his Histories, Book 4, Chap. 152, describes how the great seafarer Kolaios, the first Greek to land in Iberia (circa 650 B.C.), dedicated to Hera on his return to Samos '...a bronze vessel in the shape of an Argive crater; griffin heads projecting all around the rim...'

For similar cf. M. Comstock, and C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1971, nos 407-408 and D. G. Mitten, et al., Master Bronzes from Classical World, Mainz, 1967, nos 65-67.