Athena vs. Giant

[Rupert]

This is the coin that made my day today. It's not too rare, there are some specimens in Wildwinds, but I love that reverse.

Gordian III, 238-244
AE31 (16.13g), Seleucia ad Calycadnum, Cilicia

Obv. (M?) ANT NIOC  OP IANOC CEBATO
Radiate, draped bust right. Two countermarks, each with annulet inside a Delta
Rev. CE EVKE N T     POC KA VKA N
Athena, with helmet, shield and spear advancing right, aiming spear at a snake-legged Giant about to hurl a rock at her

What fascinates me about this coin is the elegant posture of Athena, tip-toeing like a ballet dancer in her see-through skirt which does not exactly match her military outfit, and the very skilful and lively rendering of the Giant from half-rear, with both opponents in the midst of action, beautifully highlighted by the dark patina with light encrustations.

Hope you like it too (but I think you're bound to ),

Rupert

[slokind]

Indeed.  In spite of S. ad Calycadnum style, always ad hoc con brio, it certainly alludes to the frieze of the Great Altar of Zeus at Pergamon.  For which reason I, too, have one on the way (it may be awaiting me at the P.O., in fact), but yours has a nicer reverse, mine a better obverse.  You win, since it is for the reverse that one gets it.  Pat L.

[Jochen]

Nice reverse, indeed! But I wonder about the direction in which Athena is looking on these coins! She doesn't look at the actual danger in front of her but over the giant to a distant object.

Best regards

[slokind]

That is what I meant by a style 'ad hoc, con brio'; it's a somehow, What, Me Worry?, sort of style.  Seleuciia ad Calycadnum is always a bit amusing.   Possibly, too, if the die engraver really had Pergamon specifically (having seen it firsthand), the Athena and the snake do not seem dramatically related, because, of course, Enkelados is not snake-legged, though Pergamon has some awesome snakes just around the corner from the Athena.  See attached.  But what I really meant is that the reverse die is in a manner that presupposes the Pergamon altar.   Pat L.

[slokind]

I got mine today, and I hasten to post it, because neither die seems to be the same, and the reverse is actually a different type of Athena, with a slightly different stance (not so dancing), with her Aegis covering her outstretched left arm, as on the Late Archaic Athena on the Athenan Acropolis (I wonder at how many removes it occurs here).  So I thought they should be posted together.  [The obvs. may be same die; haven't compared carefully yet].
*14 12 06 Æ30 11.90g  axis 6h  Seleuceia ad Calycadnum.  Gordian III, radiate bust, mantle over armor, with c/m (Howgego 670).  Athena fighting (spear; large aegis over her l. forearm) giant, snaky-legged.  SNG Levante 764 (obv. die). 

I am grateful that the coin was generously identified, since I don't own SNG Levante or Howgego.
Now, I want to post with it my other large S ad Caly bronze, because it has the same countermark, and it is Julia Mamaea, who is earlier by something like 15 years.  But who owns Howgego, and what is the date-range of coins with this countermark, and have we any idea what it means?  Generally I regard countermarks with disfavor, because they are hard on the original dies' image.  But do they mean something in particular here?
*16 11 01 AE 37 Cilicia, Seleuceia ad Calycadnum.  Julia Mamaea, draped bust to r.; countermark on her neck, like a lifesaver in a delta.  IOVLIA MA  MEA [SE]BASTEta in Greek.  Rev., Aphrodite, standing to r., regarding her face in a hand mirror held in hand (her right elbow seems to be wrapped in the folds of her himation.  The figure type is not known to me.  SELEVKEOmegaN TOmegaN PROS TOmega KALYKAD and, in field at lower left, the  NOmega: the fullest form of the ethnic.  Across mid-field, EL   EV, below which ThetaE    RA and below the latter S: eleutheras, free, which does not modify the ethnic name and does not occur on any of the Seleuceia coins in Lindgren & K.  Pros with dative in omega is paralleled on numerous issues at Nicopolis ad Istrum.
Pat L.

[Rupert]

Hi Patricia!

Here are the four specimens from Wildwinds (http://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=100&search=kalyka+and+athen). They all, plus our two, seem to share one obverse die, but at least four rev. dies. The four Wildwinds coins were sold in public auctions or mail bid sales for $51, 253, 320, and 280, respectively.

The first coin is die-identical to mine but has another additional countermark with a KA monogram.
The second and third are die-identical, have an Athena wearing the Aegis like your coin, but with the rev. legend differently distributed.
The fourth is from a different rev. die with Athena carrying a normal shield.

There are some more specimens in Coinarchives, three of Gordian, of these one is from the same dies as Wildwinds coins 2&3, one from the same dies as your coin, while the third is from completely different obv. and rev. dies (see below). Furthermore, the battle Athena vs. Giant appears on coins of Severus Alexander, Volusianus, Valerianus and Gallienus, so it must have had a special meaning in this city. Maybe they had a statue of this scene on public display there?

Rupert

[curtislclay]

I think the variation between aegis and shield on Athena's l. arm argues against depiction of a specific monument.  Also, in a variant of the type, Athena is riding in a frontal quadriga, below which are both a fighting giant and a slain giant, only the first of which appears in the other type.

According to BMC, Cavedoni, Spicil., p. 209, comments on the appropriateness of such representations to Cilician cities.  There are also comments on these types at Seleucia in Zeitschrift für Numismatik xiii, 134 f., according to Historia Numorum, p. 728.

[slokind]

This is not wild, but it can't be proven, and this is not the place to go into it thoroughly, but...  In the Hellenistic period, in the workshops of marble carvers of western Asia Minor, beginning at Pergamon itself but continuing at places like Aphrodisias, there were sets of figures on a related topic made to be set up in a civic setting or in a park or used for pediments or enclosures.  There were Niobids, there were Amazons and Greeks, there were Gods and Giants, there were the famous Little Gauls (and Greek opponents).  The existence on their coins of closely related, vaguely Pergamene Athenas suggests as a possible expanation that Sel ad Calycad had one of these topical groups of their own.  Pat L.

[slokind]

Here, in the Altes Museum in Berlin, is generically the sort of sculpture I had in mind (from Pergamon itself).  It doesn't get into most of the English-language textbooks.  This is an entirely different subject, of course: the label says, "Prometheus freed by Herakles.  Herakles has the portrait-traits of a ruler.  In the reclining figure one recognizes the Personification of the Caucasus.  From the North Wing (Nordhalle) of the Athena Sanctuary of Pergamon.  Marble, 150-125 BC."

[Rupert]

Just these days one of our Forum members bought a nice coin of the same type of Gallienus - BTW for almost the same price as my coin. It would have made a nice addition to my specimen, but I did not bid against him since he's more into Provincials than I am.

Rupert