The Eros of Parium:The most valuable
work of art ever found in
Nikopolis ad Istrum is undoubtedly the statue of
Eros today in the Archaeological Museum in Sofia/Bulgaria. This statue is dated to the 2nd century AD and is regarded as a
Roman copy of the
Eros of
Parium made by Praxiteles in the 4th century BC with an added tree stump and a closed quiver leaning at it.
This
Eros was very famous already in ancient times and Praxiteles himself regarded him as
his most important
work. Even though Nikopolis has struck a large number of coins with depictions of
Eros - curiously enough - there is no
type showing this very statue. In contrast for instance to
Apollo Sauroktonos made by Praxiteles too, of which Nikopolis probably have
had a copy.
Sadly this
Eros is lost. But he is mentioned by Pliny the Elder in
his Naturalis Historia (NH 36.4), where he described him as nude.
Another statue, found on the Monte Cavallo in
Rome, the
Eros Borghese, is identified too as a
Roman copy. This statue originally has belonged to Domenico Biondo, an employee of Pope Paul V Borghese, and has been included into the Borghese
Collection in 1608. At first it was called
Genius Borghese, and arms, legs and wings are modern
additions. This statue belongs to the seven most important pieces of the Borghese
Collection which was acquired by
France in 1807 and is today located in the Louvre/Paris.
But the most precise depiction is found on the coins of
Parium.
Parium together with Thespiae was the main place of worship of
Eros as god actually unusual in Greek times. This worship was pre-Greek and came certainly from Pelasgian times. The old idol seems to have been herm-shaped as it was depicted on the coins (Roscher). I want to present 3 coins from my
collection.
Coin #1:Mysia,
Parium,
Severus Alexander, AD 222-235
AE 20, 6.15g
obv. IMP SEV - ALE XANDER
AVG Head,
radiate, r.
rev. DEO CVPIDIN - I
COL IC IL A(?) PA
Eros, nude, stg. half left,
chlamys over l.
arm, l. hand on hip, r. hand extended over a small
column with
head of
Hermes (herm)
ref.
RPC IV online temp 3886 (3 ex., from same dies); not in
BMC Mysia, not in
SNG Copenhagen,
von Aulock,
France, Tübingen, Canakkale, Leypold
extremely
rare, VF,
well centered, struck on small
flanFrom
Forum Ancient Coins, thanks!
Here we find the unusual and otherwise unknown
legend DEO CVPIDINI: (dedicated) to the god
Eros.
Coin #2:Mysia,
Parium, Aemilianus, AD 253
AE 21, 4.6g
obv. IMP M AEM AEMILIANVS.A
Bust, draped and
cuirassed, laureate, r.
rev. CGI - HP
Eros, nude, stg. half left,
chlamys over l.
arm, l. hand on hip, r. hand extended over a small
column with
head of
Hermes (herm)
ref.
RPC IX, 377;
SNG France 1515
about VF
Pedigree:
ex Numismatik Naumann
Auction 43, 1, May 2016, Lot 632
CGIHP =
Colonia Gemella Iulia Hadriana Pariana
Most distinctly we can see - despite of its bad state - the lascivious posture of
Eros, the typical Praxitelian S-shape and the inclination of
his head backwards and upwards, called by RE "in erotic yearning", on the next coin of
Commodus:
Coin #3:Mysia,
Parium,
Commodus, AD 177-192
AE 25, 7.31g, 24.69mm, 180°
obv. M
CAE L AV - COMODVS
Bust, unbearded, draped and
cuirassed, laureate, r.
rev. [DEO CV]PIDINI - [COLON
IVL HAD PA]
Eros, nude, stg. half left,
chlamys over l.
arm, l. hand on hip, r. hand extended over a small
column with
head of
Hermes (herm)
ref. RPC IV 3151
This statue has
had a homoerotic touch and the Rhodian Alchidas or Alketas is said to have subjected it to indecent assault, which was proved by suspicious traces. A similar story was told too for the Knidian Aphrodite.
There is a dispute about the
chlamys which
Eros wears over
his left
arm. According to Pliny the statue was nude. Therefore at first the
chlamys was taken for a support
column (Roscher). But all depictions of the coins contradict this interpretation, they all show clearly a
chlamys. Possibly the
chlamys has hidden a support
column behind it (Jarman).
Parium:Parium, Greek Parion, was in ancient times a larger harbour of Adrasteia at the southern coast of the Dardanelles near
Lampsakos. Adrasteia was a plain in
Mysia traversed by the river Granykos. It was this river where
Alexander the Great defeated the Persians 334 BC for the first time.
Parium was founded probably by inhabitants of the island of Paros. in later times it belonged to the realm of the Attalids of
Pergamon and was made by
Augustus to the
Colonia Iulia
Augusta Pariana.
Parium had always close relations to
Thrace and
Asia minor and
had in
Roman times two harbours. Its importance was the control of the traffic between
Bosporus and Aegaeis.
Parium has struck a large number of coins of which the best-known
types show the
Gorgoneion.
Praxiteles:Praxiteles, son of Kephisodotos the Elder, a sculptor too, was beside Skopas and Lysippos surely the most famous Greek sculptor of the Late Classic Period 4th century BC.
His precise biographical data are unknown, but acording to Pliny the Elder 364 BC was the year of
his most important works.
His importance lies in the fact that he has replaced the noble severity of Phidias by a depiction which emphazise the human nature. The gods so to say have come down from heaven to earth. Mostly he worked with marble and he was known by
his unbelievable
fine treatment of the surfaces which let look the marble like living skin.
His deities stand out against the mortals by their beauty and grace. Usually they were not white as today but often he let colour them by Nikias. The dynamic of the body rhythm was
enhanced by their S-shaped posture which was called "Praxitelian". Often
his statues were elongated so that sometimes it was called Late Classic Manierism.
In ancient times about 50 works were ascribed to Praxiteles. The most famous ist undoubtedly Aphrodite of
Knidos. She altogether was the first tru-to-life depiction of a nude woman. Thus Praxiteles introduced the female naked figure as one of the main
themes into the
history of art. As model for this sculptur
his mistress should have served, the hetaera Phryne. The most known
Roman copy is the Capitoline
Venus in the Capitoline Museums in
Rome, the copy of a Hellenistic reshaping of the 2nd century BC.
Highly celebrated too were the
statues of
Eros from Thespiae and
Eros from
Parium. About
Apollo Sauroktonos (the
lizard killer) we have spoken often in this
Forum.
Nikopolis ad Istrum will have owned a copy and seems to have been very proud of it because
Apollo Sauroktonos appears on many of its coins. This is true for
Apollo Lykeios from Markianopolis as well who possibly was made by Praxiteles although Euphranor is named too.
All
his works we know only from descriptions and from
Roman copies with one exception: In 1877 in the Heraion (temple of
Hera) of Olympia the statue of
Hermes with the infant
Dionysos was found, now in the museum in Olympia. This statue today is regarded as an original of Praxiteles not only because of the typical treatment of its surfaces but too because it was found exactly in that place that was stated by Pausanias in
his Periegesis in the 2nd century AD.
Literature:(1) Plinius, Naturgeschichte, übersetzt von Gottfried Große, 11. Band,
Frankfurt am Mayn 1787
(2) Pausanias , Periegesis
(3) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen
Mythologie, Leipzig 1884 (online too)
(4) Realenzyklopädie (RE)
(5)
Wikipedia(6) Francis Jarman,
Eros on
Roman Provincial Coinage (online too)
I have added:
(1) a pic of the
Eros from Nikopolis, today in the Archaeological Museum
Sofia(2) a pic of
Eros Borghese, today in the Louvre/Paris
(3) a pic of the coin of
Severus Alexander(4) a pic of the coin of Aemilianus
(5) a pic of the coin of
CommodusBest regards
