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Author Topic: What is a "basileion above forehead"?  (Read 1263 times)

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Offline Joe Sermarini

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What is a "basileion above forehead"?
« on: June 11, 2021, 09:12:38 am »
What is a "basileion above forehead"?  This is from descriptions of Ptolemy II bronze coins in Lorber CPE.  Strange, but I have never heard of this before.
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Offline shanxi

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Re: What is a "basileion above forehead"?
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2021, 10:11:04 am »
For Isis basileion means the crown/symbol of Isis.


Offline PtolemAE

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Re: What is a "basileion above forehead"?
« Reply #2 on: June 15, 2021, 04:09:40 pm »
What is a "basileion above forehead"?  This is from descriptions of Ptolemy II bronze coins in Lorber CPE.  Strange, but I have never heard of this before.

Sometimes the alternative description, 'floral ornament', is used. You never see it depicted facing forward. just the side/profile view, so it just looks like a stick pointing upward from the top of the head at the apex of the diadem. Don't know what kind of flower it is, either. It's not seen on 'laureate' Zeus images, just Zeus Ammon images. Its prominence varies among types.

Don't know if the Isis Crown seen on some Ptolemaic coins is also considered to be a 'basileon'. That is usually described simply as 'Isis crown' and I haven't seen the word 'basileon' used as a substitute.

It's one of those words you can use at parties to cast a bit of mystery and 'in the know' sophistication into your conversations. I've not checked, but maybe it's in the OED.

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Offline shanxi

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Re: What is a "basileion above forehead"?
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2021, 02:36:30 am »
Quote from: PtolemAE on June 15, 2021, 04:09:40 pm
Don't know if the Isis Crown seen on some Ptolemaic coins is also considered to be a 'basileon'. That is usually described simply as 'Isis crown' and I haven't seen the word 'basileon' used as a substitute.

PtolemAE

The use of the term "Basileon" as crown of Isis you can e.g. find in the links below and easily in many more publications:

with coins:

http://www.ptolemaic.net/NMpdfs/Cleopatra-1-Isis.pdf
p.4:" basileion, the Egyptian symbol of Isis"

https://www.academia.edu/1547647/Le_basileion_les_reines_et_Actium
Uses the word Basileion for the crown if Isis more than 50 times, but also cites "H. Seyrig, Deux notes d’épigraphie relatives aux cultes alexandrins" who mentiones that the term is also used for other crowns"


other:

https://www.academia.edu/32413217/The_bronze_bust_of_Isis_Demeter_from_Nicea
p.10: "the disk between bovine horns,known as the basileion"

https://journals.openedition.org/syria/pdf/663
p.94 " The Isis basileion is one such example. This familiar symbol, consisting of the disc of the sun surrounded by two horns, has a long history in Egypt,"


Offline Kevin D

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Re: What is a "basileion above forehead"?
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2021, 01:36:02 pm »
I remembered taking notes for a Ptolemy III triobol, when I had a chance to go through CPE at my leisure…

Catharine C. Lorber  ‘Coins Of The Ptolemaic Empire’  Part I, Volumes 1 and 2
Volume 1
Pages 118-129, Numismatic Iconography [Ptolemy II].
Pages 128-129, “In his coin images Zeus-Ammon wears a taenia with a vertical protuberance at the top. It is assumed to be a basileion (the Alexandrian term for the headdress or coiffure of an Egyptian deity) and in this case it must be a miniaturized depiction of the tall double feather crown of Amun, viewed in profile.”

 

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