Greetings Taras, and thank you for the detailed research.
I considered a number of possibilties before landing on Taras. Some early accounts make the seated figure the personification of
democracy, along with the similar figure appearing on
contemporary coins of Rhegion. These coins were issued about the same time as the political change in both cities, and undoubtedly both did strike coins to commemorate the event. However those coins are bordered with wreaths, and this coin obviously isn't.
Dionysus was another possibility and I admit I have not yet completely rejected the idea, although I am not as confident in this conclusion. But this specimen shows none of the attributes of the
chthonic deity, ie
distaff,
kantharos, etc. Since the city of Taras was not shy about showing these items I have concluded that it was not their intention to depict
Dionysus here. I am
still open to further evidence though.
But the Deified Hero cult was prominent at Taras, and this passage from
Brauer convinced me...
"... A cult of the heroized dead was particularly important to the religious life of the city; in some respects it was part of Taras' Spartan heritage. On Spartan sepulchral reliefs, the heroized dead frequently held out a cantharos. Together with veneration of the heroized dead in general, there flourished in many Greek cities the worship of the semidivine hero who had died, such as Lycurus of Sparta or Theseus of Athens.According to a local myth, Taras had ruled many years over the pre-Greek city until, in the midst of a sacrifice to his father Poseidon, he fell into the river Taras and drowned. Since the citizens could not find his body, they assumed that he had gone to join his father and started worshipping him as a hero to whom divine honors should be paid (Herodotus). If the seated figure on the coins was intended by his engravers as Taras, he was therefore Taras the heroized and deified dead, the object of religious ceremonies in the state. Although he occasionally sits on klismos, a graceful chair with curved back and legs, his usual seat is a diphros or stool, traditionally assigned to the gods and the heroized dead in Greek art.”
It is true that none of this excludes
Dionysus, but it certainly does make a case for the oekist, imo.
In fact
Brauer goes on to say…
“Aside from the cantharos and the diphros, other attributes that occur with the seated figure also suggest his chthonic or underworld nature. He is sometimes shown playing with or feeding a panther, associated at Taras with departed heroes. Sometimes he holds a dove, symbol of the soul.”
How that helps us here I am not quite sure, since these
symbols are common to both theories. It is interesting to note that none of these
chthonic symbols appear on this coin (one of the last in the series, btw). However
Vlasto tells us that the seated figure on my coin is holding a
lekythos in
his left hand. Looking at it under a
glass I might be seeing a
lekythos handle, or it might just be the ornate
leg of the
diphros. But it is interesting that the
lekythos was often used as a funerary device.
I am not convinced that the
distaff is meant to represent an iynx, or bull-roarer (often fashioned as
birds or other
animals). Professor Sarah Iles
Johnston goes into this subject in her book 'Hekate
Soteira: A Study of Hekate's Roles in the Chaldean Oracles and Related Literature', highly recommended reading.
So yes, this may be
Dionysus, but it is unusual to find a depiction of a deity without some identifying icon, and since we do
not see the
distaff or the
cup on this specimen, or anything else to signify the god Himself, I remain doubtful.
Could the one series have included multiple principles? Possibly, as we see that some earlier issues apparently depict
Democracy while others do not. So perhaps we are seeing both Taras AND
Dionysus on different issues? This would not be unprecented, as we have seen Taras, Phalanthos, Iacchus and Poseidon all depicted as
dolphin riders.
I am most interested in hearing any further thoughts you may have.
And thank you again,
~
Peter