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Author Topic: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake  (Read 3661 times)

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Offline Jochen

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Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« on: August 11, 2005, 04:10:34 pm »
Hi!

Here I have an AE28 from Makrianopolis without attribution.
AE28, 11.86g
obv. AVT KM OPEL CEV MAKREINOC KM OPE ANTWNEINOC
        bust of Makrinos, draped and laureate, r., bare head of Diadumenian l.
rev. VP PONTIANOV MR - KIANOPOLEITWN
       naked Apollo standing frontal, head r., bow in l. hand, holding r.hand behind head; snake
       coiling around bush r.
       l. field E (for Pentassarion)
VF

I can't find it on Wildwinds nor on Coinarchives. Anyone who know this type?

Any information highly appreciated!

Best regards

Offline slokind

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Re: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« Reply #1 on: August 11, 2005, 04:32:06 pm »
Pick 726, the Lykeios pose (somewhere recently I posted in a thread a long footnote listing all of these I know).  Varbanov I, pp. 91-92, no. 881 (Bulgarian edition).  Pat L.

Offline Jochen

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Re: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« Reply #2 on: August 11, 2005, 04:43:50 pm »
Thanks, Pat! I do know that thread and do appreciate it highly and the following discussion!

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Offline slokind

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Re: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2005, 10:58:40 pm »
I thought this would interest you.  Pick, AMNG I, 1, p. 192, speaking of the Apollo Lykeios and citing Overbeck KM 4, Apollon pp 208-218, prints out in note 2, Lucian's passage from Anachars. 7.  Since you can get the text elsewhere, I won't try to put a paragraph of Greek here.  Lucian says that the statue in Athens is leaning on a stele, with bow in his l. and his r. hand on his head as if resting after exertion.  Pick, since all the Marcianopolis coins have a tree trunk as has the better Louvre copy, says that the original being of bronze would have had no support, and copies vary since they were supplied for the marbles.  We now know that bronze statues in a relaxed, leaning pose did have supports, for compositional completeness, but he is right that the choice of adjunct props is characteristic of the marble copies.  Like Pick, I think that the copies are of a bronze original creation.
Lucian is one of the very best sources for sculptures; he actually looked at them.
Pat

Offline Jochen

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Re: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2005, 08:38:43 am »
Thanks so much, Pat! I am fallen in love with all these different Apollo aspects and I think I will be engaged with this topic the next time. The next will be the Apollo Smintheus.

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Offline slokind

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Re: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« Reply #5 on: August 12, 2005, 03:47:13 pm »
Here are the combined images, both for Commodus, of Apollo Smintheus, a prime source of income for Alexandria Troas in the Hellenistic and Imperial periods.  Above is the cult image, which perhaps they would have called a xoanon, which implied a claim to great antiquity (meaning, perhaps, 7th or early 6th century BCE); it was made of wood or mixed media and was in the temple.  Below is the bronze statue which is said to have been by Skopas of Paros, who worked all over the Greek world in the 4th century BCE; it was a bronze agalma and stood outside in the sanctuary.  It is in that favorite resting pose that they loved to use for Hermes, Poseidon, Alexander, Apollo Smintheus, and, just possibly, for Jason (in the late Hellenistic classicizing--or at least that is what Renaissance bookish men thought).  At Ephesos, the pretty Artemis with her stag beside her was a sanctuary agalma, while, of course, the extraordinary stiff old image that still commanded awe in the time of St. Paul, was the cult image in the great temple.  Alliance issues use the cult image, while Roman girls could have their portrait made in the guise of the later, charming one, which was not the object of cult.
Pat
08 IX 00 AE24 Troas, AlexandriaCommodus.  Draped bust r.  Rev. Rigid quasi-archaic statue of Apollo (bow) to r. stg on a high base.  Judging from comparison with Bellinger, Troy, Suppl. Monogr. 2, pl.  19, A 188, this is to be regarded as an Apollo Smintheus representation.  The legends he gives are COMMODO to l., CAE AV GER to r.; Rev., COL AVG to l., TROAD to r.  His ex. is AE 23.
07-12 02 AE 24 7.23g Alexandria TroasCommodus, laureate, head to r.  Apollo Smintheus, the late Classical typeBellinger198.

Offline Jochen

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Re: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« Reply #6 on: August 12, 2005, 04:13:56 pm »
Here is the story of Apollo Smintheus, from Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, 1770 (It is the Lexikon which Goethe has had for his 'Faust'!):

Smintheus, surname of Apollo, which he got von 'sminthos', aeolian = 'mouse'. When the Teukri once left Crete, the oracle gave them the advice to stay there where those born from the earth would resist them. When they came to Amaxitus, a big crowd of mice gnaw at their shields and at all what has leather on it. From that they concluded that this should be the place where they should stay. So they settled down here and built a temple for Apollo under the name Smintheus, which was so composed that there was a mouse below his feet.
sp. Strab. I.XIII p.604 & 613.
This temple has existed until the time of Vespasian. Plin. H.N.I.V.c.31

I think the word Smintheus especially the diphtonge 'sm' has a bit of a smooth-tongued effect if used in a supplication. I remember a supplication in Homer's 'Odyssee' where this effect was needed!

Nice coins, indeed!

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Offline whitetd49

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Re: Macrinus, Markianopolis, Apollo and snake
« Reply #7 on: August 12, 2005, 08:11:55 pm »
It is curious how these name re-occur.  There is a small dasyurid mouse possum in Australia named Sminthopsis.  You have to love the eytomology of these taxonomic names.
If you watch long enough, even a treefrog is interesting.  Umberto Eco
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/index.php?cat=10349

 

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