Winged Demon Electrum Stater

[glebe]

Early electrum enthusiasts may be interested in this image of the unique stater Rosen 246 now in the Fogg Museum at Harvard.

Ross G.

[djmacdo]

It reminds me a bit of the later silver staters from Caria with winged Iris, although this figure looks more like Eris.

[glebe]

In this case however the figure is no goddess - below are the hemistater and trite.

Ross G.

[Rich Beale]

A beautiful rarity, thank you for posting.

[Molinari]

Why a demon and not a god or goddess?

[Rich Beale]

Presumably because there are no specific attributes present that allow us to identify the figure as a particular god or goddess. Since the figure has wings, we know it is a divine being, and 'Daimon' is an acceptable catch-all term.

[Altamura]

In L. Weidauer, "Probleme der frühen Elektronprägung", Fribourg 1975, thes types are discussed in detail. She denotes the figure as "Dämon" (demon) in quotation marks and derives that it is probably a winged master of the animals.

In E.S.G. Robinson, "Coins from the Ephesian Artemision Reconsidered", JHS LXXI (1951), he is speaking of a demon as well. He refers to an ivory plaque from the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia showing such a figure described as "a winged man holding two birds": http://www3.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/eos/eos_page.pl?DPI=100&callnum=DF261.S68D3&ident=CLX .

Regards

Altamura

[Molinari]

I see.  I always see 'demon' as a specifically malevolent being but apparently daimon and demon are more interchangeable than I thought (great coin either way!).

[Jay GT4]

I've always liked these EL types.  So many varieties and sizes.  Can anyone recommend a book that gives a good overview of them?

[Randygeki(h2)]

Thats very cool

[glebe]

I've always liked these EL types.  So many varieties and sizes.  Can anyone recommend a book that gives a good overview of them?

Well I could recommend my own site (see link below), but be warned, some of the views expressed there are not conventional. (As a bonus you get a rundown of the gold and silver coins of Croesus).

Ross G.

[Jay GT4]

Bookmarked!  Thanks!