Hi!
I want to share my newest coin with you. It is an
AE26 of
Gallienus from Seleukia ad Calycadnum in
Cilicia.
Gallienus AD 253-268
AE 26, 10g
obv. AYK PLK GALLIHN / OC
bust, draped and
cuirassed, seen from behind,laureate, r.
rev. C[E]LEYK - E - WN K / ALYK / ADN / W
Athena stg. r.,
shield in l. hand, stabs with spear on Giant with snakelike feet,
kneeling before her. He grabs her spear with l. hand and has a rock in
his raised r. hand to throw it on her.
SNG Levante 789;
BMC 57
rare, about VF
The
reverse shows a scene of the Gigantomachia. After
Zeus has locked up the Titans in the Tartaros Gaia sets her youngests sons, the Giants, on the Olympic gods. They were human shaped with snakelike feet. They couldn't be killed by gods, only by humans. So
Herakles came into play. The battle occured at Phlegra in
Thrace The Giants throw
rocks, trees and summits of mountains.
Herakles shot a poisoned arrow on Alkyoneus and dragged him over the frontier where he died.
Athena throw the island of
Sicily on another Giant, Enkelados, where he was buried.
His fire breathing came out of the Aetna until today. After defeating them in a long and heavy battle
Zeus sent the Hekatoncheires to the Tartaros to watch over them.
Myths like that of the Aetna very early lead to the opinion, that the Giants are
personifications of the vulcanic powers of earth. And it was assumed that the
victory of the Olympic gods was the
victory of civilisation and order over the chaotic and ferocious primitive times and a symbol of
contemporary tussles and victories over the barbarians.
If we speek about the Gigantomachia we must mention the
Altar of
Pergamon. Mosaics, frescos, pictures and sculptures decorated the residence on top of the 335m high mountain. It was all admirable, but the most impressive was the huge
altar for which Eumenes III BC gave order. The
Roman writer
Lucius Ampelius praised it and its Gigantomachia in
his 'Liber memorialis' and the Apocalypse of St.John calls it, unwilling fascinated, 'Seat of Satan'.
Peter Weiss related the battle between barbarianism and culture to the recent past. Archaeologists decoded the Gigantomachia as reference of the Attalides to their
victory over the Gauls and interpreted the uncommon structure of the
altar as synthesis of sacral and palace building, where logical consistent the
Telephos frieze expressed the foundation myth of the rulers, who traced back themself to
Heracles and
his son.
Best regards