I could forgive
Hermes for having
his hands full with an infant god, and such a god, to play with. And in
RPC on line, as on the above coin, I cannot see a little satyr-tail. But the
pedum on the ground, which now I see on both coins, though
logically Hermes might have one, in case one of
his flock was teetering on the brink of a crevice and a ravine, to pull it back by its neck, in the art tradition (so far as I know) belongs strictly to
Pan and the
Satyrs. If this were
Hermes, I'd look for
his kerykeion in that place on the ground.
It is a perfectly wonderful coin, a famous coin.
Pat L.
P.S. I think that this composition probably was Hellenistic rather than Late Classical, and it may well have been a painting rather than a
sculpture.
Also, I'm suddenly interested in the pose of the infant. It is that of an Æ19 from
Philippopolis (my specimen in a scan is in
RPC on line; here is a photo); there is also an inferior version at Nicopolis, for
Commodus. Another specimen of the
Philippopolis one was posted here a couple of years ago, as I recall. From the
Pergamon coin, I am inclined to wonder whether there was not a painting at
Pergamon, though a piece of repoussé metalwork also might have such a subject in such a
style, or, for that matter, a virtuoso piece of
sculpture.
Does anyone know: were the Pergamene palaces semi-public under the 2cCE Empire? At least to the governing classes? Anyway, I think an Attalid date for the creation of the composition is likely.
Pat L.
• 23 12 02 AE 19
Philippopolis.
Marcus Aurelius, bareheaded,
bust to r. AV KAI
MAR AVREta ANTONEIN.
Rev., Dancing baby
Dionysos (or, possibly, Bacchic infant),
head wreathed, shouldering
thyrsos beribboned on both ends in
his r. and carrying
kantharos in
his l. hand. He looks like a Dionysiac baby on a silver
cup a century earlier. PhILIPPOP OLEITON. Under
his left foot is not an
exergue line but a
bit of "earth".