Co-authored by Alexander Symeonidis
According to different archaeological explanations the two sculptures -- the Lion and Sphinxes -- symbolize the power and strength of the Macedonian dynasty, consequently the power and impact of the person or the persons most likely buried inside the monument of Amphipolis.
Might it not be such a naive and simple explanation about the symbolism of the sculptures? However, having as a hypothesis that the architect used mathematical symbolism's in this geometrical design which is based on a metaphysical idea, and then if we look at the sculptures with the same perspective, we can suppose that the symbolical value of both of the sculptures is subsumed in this theory. That is that the monument represents an imaginable cone pyramid (truncated cone), with mathematical symbols corresponding to important happenings in the time. The design of the monument is geometrical and the sculptures have an astronomical relation to the monument. The construction seems to have been given an astronomical emphasis, as if astronomical and scientific knowledge had been included in its design in order to be used besides as a knowledge ark or a scientific cell. That could be a possible reason that Deinocrates tried to put big obstacles in the chambers, preventing body snatchers from entering by the successive walls and the banking up. It is obvious that it is not about a simple effort to protect the content, but it is a about a huge effort to protect the monument from the sacrilegious. Deinocrates' goal was to construct it in a way to be discovered by those who would have the competent know how and scientific potential to excavate it, in other words designed to be revealed by the right people in the right time to be able to interpret the consignment of the content. Under these ideas, we can explain the way that the Caryatides stand, having an aversive attitude prohibiting the entrance and giving a pious and metaphysical character, emphasizing the suspicion of the mystic character of the monument and also the metaphysical dimension of the architect's thought.
It is not unduly that we can consider that in the design of the monument of Amphipolis the astronomical design of pyramids was used. It has been ascertained that the Pyramids of Giza are perfectly oriented to the four horizon points. Looking at the Google Earth compass, it had been observed that every side of the Pyramids are oriented to each point of the horizon with an unbelievable accuracy while the Sphinx "sees" towards the East. The Sphinx whose body is similar to a sitting lion, especially the front legs and the crooked nails similar to the one excavated in Amphipolis. It is most likely that during one of the equinoxes, at sunrise, the Sphinx stares, at one leading constellation, the constellation of the Lion. According to planetarium program, the Sphinx, indeed, stared at the constellation of Lion in the year 10.500 BC. The ancient scripts and the scientific observations proved the astronomical correlation between the Lion - Sphinx. About the year 1550 BC the Sphinx was known as the "Or-Am- Akt" meaning the Oros place. Oros was a celestial divinity and according to the Egyptian scripts, Pharaoh or King Oros is related to the solar disc and had to realize a journey following a celestial map. He had to move 70 days before the solar equinox and to cross the river and join the "Or Akt" the "Oros" of the horizon. If the sky is represented in the way it looked in the year 2500 BC, at the time that the Egyptian scripts had been written, it will be noticed that the sun is located close to the "banks" of the Galaxy, 70 days before the entrance of the summer equinox. Day by day it moves and crosses the galaxy in order to "sit" in the front legs of the constellation of the Lion on the day of the equinox. We can extract the conclusion that the Lion is "Or Akt" or Sphinx. According to astronomical calculations the Sphinx coincides with the constellation of Lion in the sunrise during the summer equinox of the year 10,500 BC. The Sphinx has a direct relationship to this constellation because it traces the astral place of the mythical ancestors drawn on a fresco in Avidos and expanded on two opposite walls. On one wall, all the "earthy" kings that existed from the beginning of the Egyptian civilization, about the 3,000 BC are recorded, while on the other "astral" wall, all the mythic kings coming probably from the Lion constellation are recorded. In any case, the only thing we can guess is that the Lion and Sphinx are correlated to the "above", the sky, where their mythic ancestors came 10,500 BC before and who gave the lights of the civilization. This is the reason they are recreated on the fresco's.
The designer of the monument of Amphipolis, apparently, was aware of the knowledge that he used in addition to the other mathematical calculations in order to give an astral identity to the monument with the goal to help the person or persons buried inside, to the dying access into the astral posthumous space. The Pyramid form is connected to the geometrical "leaning" of the geodetic parameters for the astral disconnection of the soul from the earthy space and his journey to the higher fields and his migration to the inhabitants of heaven.
Aristandros, born in 380 BC was one of the favorite seers of Alexander the Great. He had being at Philip's court and then at Alexander's. It is reported in the ancient resources that Philip had a dream: Olympias', who was his wife, womb was sealed with the emblem of lion. Aristandros interpreted the dream that Olympias would bring a child into the world, brave and strong as a lion.
Finally, could the monument be a mechanism with keys targeting to rework and change history 2,300 years later?
Alexandra Symeonidou is a best-selling author in Greece and has published 10 novels, translated three French theater plays from old French to Greek and two children's books. "Nightmares in the Saudi Arabian Desert" is her autobiography and her first translation from Greek to English. It is available on Amazon.com.