As we near the publication of the manuscript, I decided I would start a
thread to keep everyone posted on any developments, as I know you've all been dying in anticipation of the book's release.
Today I uploaded the title page and table of contents to Academia:
https://www.academia.edu/12178427/Nicholas_Molinari_and_Nicola_Sisci_POTAMIKON_I_Bronze_Coinage_of_the_Man-Faced_Bull._A_Comprehensive_Catalog_of_All_Known_Varieties_with_Essays_on_Origin_and_Identity_in_preparation_As you can see, our solution to the identity of the
man-faced bull on Greek coinage is a compatibilistic theory of locative epithets, in which Greek man-faced bulls are almost always a local embodiment of
Achelous. Here we argue that it is not, e.g.,
Achelous or Sebethos on the coinage of
Neapolis, but
Achelous Sebethos. This argument applies to other man-faced bulls:
Achelous Chydas (Alontion);
Achelous Gelas,
Achelous Palagkaios (Agyrion),
Achelous Traeis (Brettii), etc.
Thus far, the reviews have been overwhelmingly favorable and enthusiastic. We now await Keith
Rutter's opinion (he is our formal peer reviewer for Chapter 2), and Rabun
Taylor is now in possession of the first two sections of Chapter 1 (he is our formal reviewer for Chapter 1). Needless to say, we are quite anxious!
I will not present the main tenets of the theory at this time, and I ask that we do not start a conversation about the legitimacy of the theory just yet, as I won't have time to properly respond. But I figured I would give folks a taste of what is to come: Ultimately, it boils down to
Achelous as the god of all fresh water, and possibly the original god of all water, and the extensive use of locative epithets in the Greek world.
I will continue to post to this
thread as I get updates from the publisher and I'll include some of the book's plates for you all to see.
Thanks to all those who have continuously expressed interest!