RDP Tuesday: SEA LION

I haven’t been to the Sea or a Beach in ages and I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so I was kind of stumped about where I would find inspiration and be able to create something about Sea Lions.

But I have a plan “B”- I always have one.

My fall back, as I’ve mentioned before, is to visit on line museums when I’m stumped.

Sometimes I go to Google Arts and Culture and pop in word combos just to see what will turn up. I’ve  discovered some amazing artwork that I probably would have never learned about had I not been trying to trip up Google’s search box just so that I could see ” subject not found.”

Yeah- there is that element. I don’t know why that’s a thing for me, but it is.

On to my discovery-

Today I knew what I would get if I typed in Sea Lion and I did want to go a little ( well, as far as I could ‘ outside of the box’ ) so I typed in Lion Sea and this is what I got:

PHOTOGRAPHER UNKNOWN

From Google Arts and Culture: This colossal lion weighs some six tons. Made from one piece of marble, it was mounted on a base crowning a funerary monument. The monument itself was square with a circular interior chamber and a stepped-pyramid roof. It is a type of funerary monument inspired by the greater tomb of Maussollos, built about 350 BC at Halikarnassos, less than a day’s sail from Knidos.

The monument was set on a headland terminating in a sheer cliff that falls some 200 feet into the sea. The hollow eyes of the lion were probably originally inset with coloured glass, and the reflection of light may have been an aid to sailors navigating the notoriously difficult coast. 

Google Arts and Culture-British Museum

As you can see from the above blurb, this six ton funerary monument is a Sea Lion. It is a lion that was set on a sheer cliff over looking the Sea and at one time it had glass eyes that reflected light. Today I may have stumbled a bit on the prompt- but this statue has a story to tell and I think if I sit down and really listen, I’ll hear it.

amm