Classical Numismatics Discussion
  Welcome Guest. Please login or register. 10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! Expert Authentication - Accurate Descriptions - Reasonable Prices - Coins From Under $10 To Museum Quality Rarities Welcome Guest. Please login or register. 10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!! Support Our Efforts To Serve The Classical Numismatics Community - Shop At Forum Ancient Coins

New & Reduced


Author Topic: The heros Kyzikos  (Read 1964 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Pscipio

  • Tribunus Plebis 2009
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 3756
  • Si vis pacem, cole iustitiam
The heros Kyzikos
« on: November 05, 2009, 12:56:27 am »
I realized this morning that we don't have a thread for the heros Kyzikos, after which the famous city Kyzikos / Cyzicus was named, and that while I have just received the sixth coin bearing his head. Luckily, and not surprisingly, Jochen has covered the myth of the king Kyzikos and the Argonauts in his mythology thread: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=25089.200

So I'm going to post the Kyzikos coins I have, despite the poor condition of some, and well knowing that I'm only scratching the surface as the city of Kyzikos issued lots of coins bearing his portrait in Roman times (BMC alone has 20 types and is still far from complete).

Coin 1:16-18 mm, 2.92 g. BMC p. 43, no. 189, dated to 98-211 AD.

Coin 2: 18 mm, 2.30 g. BMC -, cf. SNG Leypold 338 (dated 2./1. BC, which is surely wrong)

Coin 3: 26-28 mm, 9.48 g. BMC p. 42, no. 185, 98-211 AD.
Leu Numismatik
www.leunumismatik.com

Offline Pscipio

  • Tribunus Plebis 2009
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 3756
  • Si vis pacem, cole iustitiam
Re: The heros Kyzikos
« Reply #1 on: November 05, 2009, 12:58:09 am »
Coin 4: 25-28 mm, 8.18 g. BMC -, cf. RPC Online 561 temp, dated to 177-184 AD.

Coin 5: 25-27 mm, 11.08 g. BMC -, SNG Cop. 88 (I apologize for the poor picture of this one).

Coin 6 (my latest addition): 24-25 mm, 8.65 g. BMC -, SNG Aulock 1249, dated to time of Gallienus by the interesting magistrate name ACKΛEΠIAΔOY.

Lars
Leu Numismatik
www.leunumismatik.com

Offline slokind

  • Tribuna Plebis Perpetua
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 6654
  • Art is an experimental science
    • An Art Historian's Numismatics Studies
Re: The heros Kyzikos
« Reply #2 on: November 05, 2009, 02:17:37 am »
Do you know whether there is a particular point to having a pair of snake staffs on the reverse of no. 3?  Pat

Offline areich

  • Tribunus Plebis Perpetuus
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 8706
    • Ancient Greek and Roman Coins, featuring BMC online and other books
Re: The heros Kyzikos
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2009, 03:18:02 am »
They're usually described as 'two serpent-entwined torches'  'flanking lighted altar' and they are torches,
as can clearly be seen on well-preserved examples.
I'm not sure if there is an altar on this coin.

This link hopefully goes to a Google books page on 'The Cults Of The Greek States, volume 3'  by Lewis Richard Farnell.
It talks about another type though it is briefly mentioned that the serpemt-entwined torches 'were special adjuncts of the agrarian Persephone-cult in this city'

http://tinyurl.com/yg6q5ka
Andreas Reich

Offline Pscipio

  • Tribunus Plebis 2009
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 3756
  • Si vis pacem, cole iustitiam
Re: The heros Kyzikos
« Reply #4 on: November 05, 2009, 03:22:42 am »
It is unclear on my coin, but better preserved specimen show that these are not staffs, but burning torches (SNG Aulock 1250 attached, with the usual cat hair). I suspect that the torch alludes to the cult of Kore Soteira, which is so prominent at Kyzikos, an idea supported by a coin bearing the portrait of Faustina II. as Kore Soteira, with a reverse showing the two snake-entwined torches aside of what looks like a shrine with three Demeter figures atop (Rauch auction 76, no. 330, picture attached; see also http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=23660). I do not know why the torches are entwined by snakes, however. It is interesting that while the torch shows up regularly on the hellenistic coins of Kyzikos*, the snake, as far as I know, only appears in Roman times. Head, HN p. 527, refers to Imhoof-Blumer, Griechische und Römische Münzkunde, p. 41 when mentioning these snake-entwined torches, but I do not have that book of IB at home.

Lars

*
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=162311
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=272581
Leu Numismatik
www.leunumismatik.com

Offline wandigeaux (1940 - 2010)

  • Deceased Member
  • Caesar
  • ****
  • Posts: 873
Re: The heros Kyzikos
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2009, 10:48:59 am »
I have posted this before, but it belongs here more fittingly.  The circular building on the reverse of this unlisted Trajan is discussed at some length in Price and Trell, pp. 109-115.  They call it a tomb/altar/shrine with sacred portal (note the high setting of the "door" and the lack of steps) used in the mysteries of Demeter.  These mysteries, they maintain, are derived from those at Samothrace, and the basic building style from the Arsinoeion there (although that was used for a different purpose).

Trajan, AE28, Mysia, Cyzicus, 14.35g.

AVT NE_P TPAIANOC KAICAP CEB GEP DAK
Laurate bust right

EPI IOVL GLAVKOV CTR KVZIKHN
Circular building topped by statue of figure in serpent biga (Triptolemos?), flanked by serpent entwined torches.
Hwaet!
"The pump don't work 'cuz the Vandals took the handle" - St. Augustine
GET THE HELL OFF MY LAWN!!
(1940 - 2010)

Offline slokind

  • Tribuna Plebis Perpetua
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 6654
  • Art is an experimental science
    • An Art Historian's Numismatics Studies
Re: The heros Kyzikos
« Reply #6 on: November 05, 2009, 04:26:34 pm »
I forgot about Samothrace!  Does this connection cast any light on the Demeter coins in Thrace with one snake on her torch and another emerging from a basket on her left?  Pat L

Offline Jochen

  • Tribunus Plebis Perpetuus
  • Procurator Monetae
  • Caesar
  • *****
  • Posts: 12278
  • Omnes vulnerant, ultima necat.
Re: The heros Kyzikos
« Reply #7 on: November 05, 2009, 05:33:39 pm »
Hi Pat!

You have got it again. I have found a text in 'Mysterienheiligtümer in Eleusis und Samothrake, Berlin 1892' stating strong relations between Kyzikos and Samothrake.
Kyzikos has sent the architect Asklepiades, son of Attalos in Kyzikos, to Samothrake, who has erected a stone together wirh other mystes. This stone, stg. on a cippus, wears the depiction of an entrance of a temple whose door was decorated with a snake entwined torch on each side. It seems that this Asklepiades was sent to Samothrake to erect a temple.
Another relief was found on a votive stone showing a similar building which has on each side of its door too a torch entwined by a snake.

It is pointed to the fact that the similar depictions are found on coins of Kyzikos. The coin 23660.jpg is discussed in detail. The 3 figures on top of the building are holding each 2 torches. It is suggested that this depiction was brought from Kyzikos to Samothrake and has no origins in Samothrake itself. But after the finding of a third relief with the same motive that can't be true. There must have been a connection to a Samothracian cult. And the concurrence of the coin depictions in Kyzikos and the depictions on the reliefs in Samothrake is the evidence for cult relations between both locations, a relation of kinsmanlike nature between the mysteries in Samothrake and one of the cults of Kyzikos. We don't know the cult. But the cult of Demeter and Kore is the most probable.

http://www.archive.org/stream/MN40025ucmf_6/MN40025ucmf_6_djvu.txt

Best regards
Jochen

 

All coins are guaranteed for eternity