Numism > Reading For the Advanced Ancient Coin Collector
Coins of mythological interest
Jochen:
The Gorgoneion - the head of Medusa
Surprisingly the Gorgoneion is much older than the myth of Gorgo. Nearly all primitive (in the sense of very early!) people know of horror masks which require the belief in evil eyes and in the banning power of the increased expression of rage and sneer. Since when the Greek pass over from the impersonal grimace to the mythological personal is not known. Homer already know the myth of Perseus.
At first the Gorgoneion was predominant with broad face, dreadful eyes, bared tongue and snakes in the hair often with four wings. It was magic-apotropaically (= averting)
attached to shields, cuirasses, to doors and gates, to ships and horses and also to tombs.
When time goes by her ugliness was mitigated and around 400 BC in the Medusa Rondanini (in Munich) a exceptional beautiful type was achieved however from a cold, soulless beauty. The Hellenism then granted the Gorgoneion the painful traits of melancholia and does not show longer the tantalizing but the tantalized being.
Attached are the following three pics:
The Gorgona Rondanini from Munich
An tetradrachm of Philipp I from Antiochia Prieux 357 with a Gorgoneion on his breastplate.
The denar of Domitian RIC 65 var.-. Especially Domitian shows very often the Aegis accross his left shoulder. Here it is the Aegis with attached Gorgoneion. You see clearly the profile of the head of Medusa (nose!) and the snake-hairs!
Resume:
So actually we should differentiate between three different depictions:
1) The Aegis, the mere goat-skin
2) The Gorgoneion, i.e. the head of Medusa
3) The Aegis with attached Gorgoneion, identifiable by its snakes.
Source: Der kleine Pauly
Best regards
Jochen:
Asklepios - the Healing God
Today I want to tell you something about the Greek Healing God Asklepios, lat. Aesculapius. For this purpose I present two coins both struck for Caracalla (AD 198-217).
1) Thracia, Serdika, Caracalla Ruzicka 245
AE 30, 16.6g
obv. AVT KM AVR CEVH - ANTWNEINOC
bust, draped, laureate, r.
rev. OVLPIAC - CERDIKAC
Asklepios, half-nude, standing facing, feeding with r. hand snake, which
coiled around his rod, set on ground l. beside him.
Ruzicka 245 (attribution by Curtis Clay)
Very rare, EF
Serdica is todays Sofia, capital of Bulgaria. Ulpia was the surname of the city in
honour of Ulpius Trajan who raised the city to a municipium..
2) Caracalla RIC IV, 253 var.
AR - denar, 3.30g, 20.3mm
Rome AD 215
obv. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM
bust, laureate, r.
rev. PM TRP XVIII COS IIII PP
Aesculapius, standing frontal, nude to hips, head facing, holding snake-
entwined rod in r. hand, l. hand across body with fold of drapery, r. at his feet
globe; at the l.side a small figure with hooded cloak (Telesphoros)
RIC IV, 253 var.; C.307; BMC 105
FDC
RIC listed this type only with head l., but market observation has shown that this
variant is not so rare.
1. Mythology:
Asklepios is the famous Greek Healing God. At Homer however he was not yet a god, but a man, the father of Machaos and Podaleirios, two famous surgeons in front of Troy. He is said to be the father of Hygieia too. Referring to Homer the entire medicine originates from Paieon, which was another name for Apollon. Later on there are several myths of his divine ancestry. He was the son of Apollon and the princess Koronis, daughter of Phlegyas, king of the Lapiths. When she was pregnant, Apollon left a raven to guard her. But she betrayed him with Ischys, son of Elatos. When the raven reported the infidelity to Apollon he cursed the raven. From this time on all ravens are black. Artemis avenged her brother Apollo by killing Koronis with her arrows. But Apollon wanted to save his unborn son and Hermis cut him out of the body of the dead. He was called Asklepios and given over to the Centaur Cheiron who educated him and teached him the art of medicine.
Another myth tells that after his birth he was abandonned on the Tithion mountain where the herdsman Aresthanas found him and then nursed him alternately by his dog and his goats. Therefore Asklepios sometimes is depicted with these animals.
Asklepis not only was able to cure invalids but to reawake deads too. For that purpose Athena has given him two glasses with blood of the Gorgo Medusa. With the blood of her left side he could reawake to life, with the blood of the right bring to death. Back into life he brought f.e. Lykurgos, Kapaneos and Tyndareos. Asklepios came to his end when Hades complained at Zeus about Asklepios that he would steel him too much dead souls. Because of the reawakening of Orion he was accused of corruptibility and then killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt together with his patient. A short time later Zeus regretted what he has done and gave them back their lifes. Together with his snake-entwined rod Asklepios was set as a constellation on the sky.
(will be continued)
Jochen:
(continued)
2. Background:
Asklepios is a pre-hellenic deity from Northern Greece, probably Thessalia, where his name is connected with 'Asgelatas' meaning the snake-footed god. Asklepios was worshipped at many Greek locations especially those with healing fonts. His temples therefore were found often outside of the cities and often on hills. In these temples numerous patients were staying so that they looked like todays hospitals. The main sanctuary stood in Epidauros. From there his cult came to Rome 359 BC during a great pest epidemic.
In Epidauros stood a great statue of Asklepios simulating Zeus. It is described by Pausanias: The demigod is seated on a throne, holding in one hand a rod, the other on a snake, a dog is laying at his feet.
Snakes were a symbol of renewing due to their regular moult. It is said too that they would be able to find healing herbs. Therefore Asklepios not only was depicted together with the Apollinic snakes but as snake himself. In his temples often snakes were kept.
The suggestions for healing the priests received by dreams (so-called thaumaturgy) or during a sleep (so-called temple sleep). To thank them a cock or a goat was hanged in the temple by the cured together with a plate described with the illness and the way and method of healing. These plates are found by archeologists.
The priests of Asklepios were called Asklepiadae. They were a sworn, sect like community of healers. Their profession passed over always from the father to his son. The acception was confirmed by a sacred oath.
This cult spread over the whole Empire. He was hold as Saviour and later on there were heavy theological conflicts with the apologets of Christianity.
Telesphoros
On the denar of Caracalla on the left side of Asklepios (or better Aesculapius for it is a Roman coin!) you see the small figure of Telesphoros. This is a talking name, meaning 'finalizer'. He is always depicted with a hooded cloak where only his feet stick out. The 'der kleine Pauly' calls him 'one of the most problematic figures in the history of religions'. Very late he was added to Asklepios as his 'son'. He was introduced by an oracle in Pergamon at the end of the 1st century AD from where his cult spread very fast. Because of his small shape and the hooded cloak Telesphoros is identical with the 'genii cucullati', a group of fertility, healing but death gods too (cucullus = hood). Probably they are old celtic deities.
A last coin of Diadumenians from Deultum (Yurukova 88) shows Telesphoros on the reverse.
Sources:
Der kleine Pauly
Robert von Ranke-Graves, Greek Mythlogy
William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (online!)
Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen
Best regards
Jochen:
The gods of the Underworld
I think here is the appropriate place for this contribution therefore I moved it from 'Coins of Historical Interest'! The coin is an Antoninianus of Caracalla AD 198-217, one of the first ones:
AR - Antoninianus, 5.3g, 22.2mm,
Rome AD 215
obv. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG GERM
Bust cuirassed radiate head r.
rev. PM TRP XVIII COS IIII PP
Pluto with modius on head, seated on throne l., sceptre in l. hand,
stretching r. hand to three-headed Cerberus at his feet.
RIC IV/1, 261(d); not in in Cohen
Rare; nice EF
I was going to find more information of the figure of Pluto and now I think it is more likely Serapis! Here is what I have found:
Hades
Together with Zeus and Poseidon the third son of Kronos was Hades. After the struggle against the Titans he got the rule of the Underworld by drawing lots. His name is derived from Greek 'a-ides' = unvisible, like the word 'hell', the nordish goddess Hel, or the hebraic word 'sheol' for hell. As ruler of the Underworld he was weird to the people. His name not often was called, but only circumscribed. There were not much cults for him. But as a ruler of the wealth of the earth too he was related to Plutos.
Plutos
Plutos, not really a god in the strict sense, was the figure of wealth and abundance. In the beginning he was the master of the subterranean grain supplies, later ruler of the deads too (at first probably in Eleusis). In this function he was called Pluton mostly.
Pluton
Pluton, in the beginning the god of wealth, the donator of gifts, therefore depicted with the modius on head, the Roman grain measure.
In his shape very similar to Zeus: A venerable man with full hair and beard, holding sceptre. At his feet the three-headed Cerberus, the guard of the underworld. In opposition to Hades he stands for the moderate side of the chthonic powers and was helpful to human beings.
Therefore he was warshipped on many places, often together with Demeter/Proserpina. When times go by he was melted with Hades and then he replaced him as the ruler of the underworld.
Serapis
Serapis (sometimes Sarapis) was introduced about 300 BC to Alexandria as god of the state by Ptolemaeus I Soter (305-284 BC), known as the founder of the famous Alexandrian library too. He built the big Serapeion in Alexandria and the famous sculptor Bryaxis created the statue of Serapis: Also a venerable man with modius (Greek. kalathos, not polos!) on his head, holding sceptre, the three-headed Zerberos at his feet. Full beard and mighty hair let him look like Zeus, and reminds on Pluton. He was a syncretistic (= mixed up) deity und should unify the Greek and the Egyptian religions, so connecting the people of the East with the people of the West, an important objective of the Hellenism. His name was derived from Apis-Osiris, a god of grain, fertility and wealth too. He was melted with Asklepios, the god of healing, with Dionysos, of whom he got the secret consecrations, with Pluto, as god of the underworld, then with Zeus, and yes, with Christus, as sole god and creator of the world. The last time his cult was promoted by Julian II, who sometimes called himself Deus Serapidis.
AD 389 Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, destroyed the Serapeion, probably by order of Theodosius, and with this event the time of paganism was gone for ever.
(will be continued)
Jochen:
(continued)
Caracalla (AD 198-217)
Already Severus, father of Caracalla, had identified himself with Serapis! His depiction with the 5 curls on the forehead was called serapian (but now it seems to be more antoninian style). Caracalla continued his father's cult. He built a Serapeion in Rome on the Quirinal hill, which gave his name to the III. Roman region. To this temple he consecrated the sword with which he has killed his brother Geta, referring to Dio Cassius. Caracalla was very interested in religions. His visit of the Alexandrian Serapion was notorious. There he has done all rites and received the consecrations. His dead is characteristic: He was on a trip to the moongod of Carrhae when he was killed.
Depiction on the coin
The depiction on the reverse of the coin is in all details similar to the statue of Bryaxis in the Serapeion of Alexandria! The similarity with Zeus, the three-headed Cerberus, you find all. Therefore I think much stands for Serapis as depicted deity! Whereas RIC speaks of Pluto(n), CNG calls the figurs on the Aureus RIC 242, C.253, and on the Denar RIC 261(a) Serapis too!
Ok, the pictures of Serapis and Pluton are mixed together. So it could well be that the same picture was called Serapis by a Greek and Pluton by a Roman (Patricia Lawrence!). This point of view was characteristic for the syncretism!
Coming to the end: One can say that this coin is typically for the syncretism which now is coming to Rome from all sides - especially from the East. The time of the old gods now is fading away. Only short time and by Elagabal the first real monotheistic god will be introduced to Rome.
Added is the pic of a famous copy of the head of Bryaxis' Serapis from the 2nd century AD. The Ptolemaic eagle, which the gems show to have adorned the pediment of Serapis' temple, is here placed on the top of the kalathos.
Best regards
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