Numism > Reading For the Advanced Ancient Coin Collector
Coins of mythological interest
Jochen:
Histiaia and her family
Here I want to tell something about the nymph Histiaia. Because there is only few to tell about Histiaia herself I have enlarged the topos to "Histiaia and her family":
1st Coin:
Euboia, Histiaia, 196-146 BC.
AR - Tetrobol, 2.3g, 13.37mm, 315°.
Obv.: Bust of Histiaia, draped, with necklace and ear-ring, hair rolled up in sphendone, wreathed with vine leaves and grapes.
Rev.: [IΣTI] - AIEΩN
The nymph Histiaia, in long dress, seated r. on the stern of a ship decorated with wings, leaning back with right hand and holding stylis in left hand.
Below ME(?) and trident.
Ref.: BMC 128, 30ff; BCD Euboia 382; SNG 517 var.
VF, old dark toning, rev. somewhat off-centre.
2nd Coin:
Euboia, Histiaia, 196-146 BC.
AR - Tetrobol, 1.32g, 13.91mm, 315°.
Ref,: BMC 128, 30ff; SNG 517var.
Small, irregular flan
Notes:
The stylis is a freestanding hasta with a transverse bar on the stern of ancient ships. It can be found on coins of Histiaia and others since 340 BC. Its origin is Phoenician and it is marked as a sacred standard in place of statues of gods at the stern (Pauly).
For this reason it cannot be a Prora. Earlier publications, even Mionnet and the great Eckhel, erroneously had Histiaia sitting on the front of the ship and mistook the aphlaston for a swelling sail.
Problem of dating:
This coin type has been struck in different periods The first issue are thought to have begun around 340 BC to commemorate the expulsion of the pro-Macedonian tyrant Philistides. A second issue probably existed between 313 BC and 265 BC, thus beginning at the time when Euboia had declared itself independent.
The last period was from 196 to 146 BC, beginning before the Roman victory over Perseus in 168 BC. There are also a large number of Macedonian imitations from this period. These are of coarse style and easily recognisable and go under the name of Histiaika or Argyria Histiaika (Head).
In Pat Lawrence's opinion, my first coin does not date from the 4th century because of its style. Rather, it bears resemblance to the "Invitation to the Dance" group from the later Hellenistic period, the so-called "Hellenistic Rococo".
The second coin is probably one of the Macedonian imitations.
Mythology:
Histiaia was the daughter of Hyrieos. The city of Histiaia in northern Euboia is said to have been named after her. Hyrieos was a son of Poseidon and Alkyone and king of Hyria in Boiotia. He was married to the nymph Klonia, by whom he had the sons Nykteos, Lykos and Orion (Apollodor; Hygin. Fab.).
There is a mythology of the treasure-house of Hyrieos told by Pausanias: Agamedes and Trophonios, the sons of Erginos, king of Orchomenos, were architects and were considered specialists in the construction of temples and palaces. When King Hyrieos commissioned them to build a treasure house, they added a stone to the walls which they could remove without anyone noticing. Through this opening they kept crawling and stealing Hyrieos' treasures. The king saw his treasure getting smaller and smaller, even though the door locks were not broken. So he set traps to catch the thief. Agamedes got caught in these traps and, to prevent discovery, Trophonios cut off his head. But he himself was swallowed up by the earth at the same moment.
Close to Histiaia was the village of Oreos, which was united with Histiaia in 445 BC. Oreos is said to have received its name from Orion, who was raised here (Strabo). For this reason, August Baumeister, for example, assumes that Hyrieos, the father of Histiaia, is Orion himself. But Histiaia and Orion, the representatives of the two sister cities, could also have been siblings, both children of Hyrieos.
Orion, the presumed brother of Histaia, is the well-known giant hunter of Greek mythology from Boiotia, who was placed in the sky as a constellation after his death. Palaiphatos gives an account of his conception, which I will quote here: his name comes from ουρησις, from piss, and he was initially called Ourion because he was created through urine. But since this name was a bit too indecent, they made an O out of the Ou and called him Orion. And that's how it all happened:
Once Zeus, Poseidon and Hermes were visiting King Hyrieos. In gratitude for his hospitality, they allowed him to make a request. Thereupon the childless Hyrieos wished for a son. The gods took the skin of the ox sacrificed to them, let all their urine into it, ordered him to bury it in the earth and only take it out after 10 months. This he did and found Orion in it.
Roscher writes on this "an ugly fairy tale has arisen about its creation through etymological wit."
History:
Histiaia is situated on the northern coast of Euboia, the second largest island in Greece, and was founded as an Attic colony. It is already named in Homer's Iliad and described as πολυσταφυλος = rich in wine. Thus the vine leaves on the head of Histaia are easily explained. The ancient and modern name Εὔβοια is derived from εὖ 'good' and βοῦς 'cattle' and means. 'land of well-fed cattle'.
After the departure of the Attic colonists it united with the neighbouring town of Oreos, and so it was afterwards generally called by writers. They were given a common wall, 2 acropoleis and a common harbour. The territory of Histiaia included the whole north, a quarter of the whole island. It was occupied by the Persians in the Xerxes campaign. Afterwards it joined the 1st Attic League. In 446 B.C. there was an uprising because of the tribute payments, which was put down by the Athenians. The inhabitants were expelled and Attic colonists settled there. In 404 the inhabitants were allowed to return. In the Corinthian War it stood with the whole of Euboia against Sparta and came under Spartan occupation until its liberation in 377. Afterwards it was a member of the 2nd Attic League, interrupted only in 343-341 by the tyranny of Philistides, who was supported by Philip. In the Hellenistic period it was mostly under Macedonian rule until the conquest by the Romans and Attalus of Pergamon. It was declared free in 197 BC.
Its widespread coin finds testify to its great commercial importance in Hellenistic times.
Pliny already mentions it as an abandoned place in the 1st century AD. Today there are only a few archaeological remains, some walls and temple foundations (Pauly). Modern Oreoi lies slightly to the west of ancient Oreos.
I have added a photo of modern Oreoi (Geotag Aeroview, Wikipedia)
Sources:
(1) Homer, Ilias
(2) Eustath. Ad Homer
(3) Palaiphatos, Unglaubliche Geschichten
(4) Strabon, Geographie
(5) Apollodor, Bibliotheke
(6) Hyginus, Fabulae
(7) Plinius, Naturalis historia
Literature:
(1) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie
(2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, Leipzig 1770 (Facsimile)
(3) August Baumeister, Topographische Skizze der Insel Euboia, 1864 (Reprint)
(3) Der Kleine Pauly
(4) Barclay V. Head, Historia Numorum (Ed Snible, online)
Best regards
Jochen
Tracy Aiello:
Thank you Jochen. That made for a great early evening read.
Tracy
Jochen:
Ops and Consus
Ops is a very rarely depicted deity. Because my coin is too poorly preserved, I have chosen a coin from Wildwinds here.
1st coin:
Antoninus Pius, 138-161
AE - Sestertius, 22.76 g, 33 mm
Obv.: ANTONINVS AVG PI - VS P P TR P COS III
Laureate head r.
Rev.: OPI - AVG
in ex. S C
Ops enthroned l., left foot on footstool, holding long sceptre with right hand across right
shoulder and pulls the fold of her robe upwards from the shoulder with the left hand; left
elbow bent and resting on the throne.
Ref.: RIC 612, pl.V, 105; C. 569; BMCR 1258; Sear 4197
rare, VF, brown patina
Pedigree:
ex Roma Numismatics Auction XII, Sept. 2016.
Finding out the true character of Ops turned out to be unexpectedly difficult. The reason was that her original meaning is obscured and that she was later connected to the Greek Rhea. I have therefore omitted all mythological references to Rhea.
Iconography:
Here Ops is correctly depicted seated, as befits a chthonic deity.
Etymology:
The Latin ops, opis (f.) is related to the Old Indian "apnas" = yield, belongings, and the Greek "ομπνη" = crops. It means:
in the singular: 1. power, strength, fortune, 2. help, assistance, and in the plural: 1. means, fortune, wealth, 2. troop power, armed forces
Mythology:
Ops, with full name Ops Mater (Varro), is an ancient Roman deity of the oldest religious order. Her cult is said to have been introduced into Rome under Titus Tatius, the co-king of Romulus, and to be of Sabinic origin. She is a personification of the rich abundance of harvest blessings and is therefore cultically connected with the harvest god Consus.
This connection is, however, obscured by the fact that the ancient authors already transferred the Greek ideas of Kronos and Rhea to Ops and associated her with Saturnus. This was supported by the idea that the temple of Saturn on the Forum was dedicated to both deities. But today the inscription Opi(s) et Saturni has turned out to be a forgery.
The affiliation of Ops and Consus is proven by the fact that Consiva, the epithet of Ops, refers to her as Consus' comrade. Even if this epiclesis does not come directly from Consus, it is derived from the Latin condere (= to store, to save). Thus it is clear that Ops does not belong to the seed god Saturnus, but to the harvest god Consus. This is also proven by the position of her two festivals in the old Roman calendar. While the feasts of Consus fall on 21 August, the end of the harvest, and 15 December, the end of threshing, they are followed by the feasts of Ops, on 25 August Opiconsivia and on 19 December Opalia, both only 4 days apart.
A third feast day on 10 August was added to the festival calendar in 7 AD to commemorate the foundation of altars to Ceres mater and Ops augusta. The epithet augusta is only found on weight inscriptions (see below), on an inscription from Theveste in Numidia and on coins of Antoninus Pius.
Coins of Pertinax depict her as a seated woman with ears of corn in her hand and bear the legend Opi divin(ae), probably as a designation of the harvest wealth sent by the gods, if it is understood as "divine help". These very coins have given rise to a number of forged writings with the consecration Opi divinae (Roscher).
2nd coin:
Pertinax, 193 AD.
AE - Sestertius, 28.21g
Obv.: IMP CAES P HELV - PERTINAX AVG
Laureate head r.
Rev.: OPI DIVIN - TR P COS II
in left and right field S - C
Ops enthroned l., holding ears of grain in her right hand and supporting
himself on the throne with his left hand.
Ref.: RIC 20; Cohen 34; BMC 42; Sear 6054
Extremely rare
Pedigree:
ex Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 51, Lot 341, March 2009.
In the Roman provinces we know of only two places with the cult of Ops. Theveste, already mentioned, and Lambaesis, also in Numidia. Here, however, Ops Regina, just like Saturnus Dominus, is only the Latin name for a native Punic deity.
The unification of Saturnus and Ops into a pair of gods, which is not founded in Roman religion but is common in literature, dates only from the time when the Roman cult experienced a complete Hellenisation, from the beginning of the 2nd Punic War. After Saturnus had been identified with Kronos, it was obvious to equate Rhea with Ops. The December festivals of Saturnus and Ops were close to each other and Rhea was also an earth goddess.
The phrase Ops terra est (Ops is the earth) is found several times and means that Ops is called Terra because all human works are produced by the earth. Therefore Saturnus and Ops were regarded as principes dei, as heaven and earth, and Ops was also equated with other earth goddesses, especially with Bona Dea. The equation with Rhea, however, is as old as Roman literature.
Other interpretations, such as that she, as earth, belonged to the deities of the newborn, have nothing to do with actual religious practice. Also, that Ops was the actual patron goddess of Rome, whose name was kept secret, is only a learned construction based on the mystery surrounding the worship of Ops in the Sacrarium of the Regia.
Consus
Etymologically, Consus comes from Latin. condere (= to hide, and, as in German, to conceal). He is therefore not a god of sowing, but a god who hides the harvested crops in the barns.
Consus was an ancient Italian chthonic earth and seed god whose altar lay underground in Rome's Circus maximus and was only uncovered on his main festivals celebrated by shepherds and peasants, the Consualia, on 20 Aug (after the harvest) and 15 Dec (after the end of threshing!). On the former feast, the robbery of the Sabine women is said to have taken place (Livius); on the latter, the draught animals, horses and mules, also celebrated with the people. Their heads were wreathed and the pontifices held races in the circus, especially of mules. This is why Roman authors mistakenly equated Consus with the Greek horse god Poseidon. This is also the case with Livius, who speaks of a festival of Neptune in connection with the robbery of the Sabine women. He was even sometimes called Neptunus Equestris (Greek Poseidon Hippios).
According to the legend, Consus was the god who gave Romulus the advice to rob the Sabine women. Therefore he was considered the god of secret plots. But this is only one of the many misinterpretations. The Roman authors have mistakenly combined the name Consus with the Latin consilium = advice (so Servius).
The temples of Ops
There must have been at least 3 temples of ops in Rome:
(1) In the older times the only place of worship of the Ops was the Sacrarium of the Regia. In ancient Rome the Regia was a building on the east side of the Forum Romanum next to the temple of Vesta. It originally belonged to the property of the kings, then around 509 BC, when the monarchy was abolished, it became the seat of the Rex sacrorum, who had taken over the sacral functions of the king, and then of the Pontifex Maximus. It was thus the site of the Collegium, the assembly of the pontifices.
According to tradition, the Regia was built under Numa Pompilius, the legendary second king of Rome. Today's remains come from a restoration in 36 BC. At that time, the Regia was a five-sided house. It burned down several times, but was always rebuilt.
Inside was a sanctuary of Mars in which the twelve lances and shields of the Salians (from Latin salire = "to leap") were kept. In addition, the Regia also contained a sanctuary of the Ops Consivia, which was so sacred that only the pontifex and the vestal virgins were allowed to enter. In honour of the goddess, a harvest thanksgiving festival was held every year on 23 August on the Capitol. The annals of the city were also stored here.
Photo:
Square of the former Regia on the Forum, Wikipedia (at the end of the article)
(2) Only later did the goddess receive a temple on the Capitol. It stood in the square in front of the temple of Iuppiter Optimus Maximus next to the temple of Fides. This temple was first mentioned in 186 BC as aedes in Capitolio in connection with a lightning strike (Livius). It collapsed several times and was rebuilt. According to a remark by Cicero, the statue of Scipio Africanus stood here.
Gaius Iulius Caesar deposited the state treasure of 700 million sesterces in the Temple of Ops on the Capitol. Marcus Antonius is said to have appropriated this treasure after Caesar's death. Georg Ürodgi 1978 wanted to disprove this by purely technical considerations.
During the secular celebrations (ludi saeculares) in 17 BC, the matronae gathered in the temple, and in 80 AD, the Arval brothers. On the walls of the temple hung civic awards to soldiers, and inside were kept the standard weights of the State, including a bronze weight with the inscription templ(um) Opis aug(ustae) (Roscher). This proves that the goddess worshipped here assumed the epithet augusta in the course of the imperial period.
The day of inauguration fell on the feast of Opiconsivia on 25 August. It was still in use during the 4th century and was finally closed during the persecution of the pagans by the Christian emperors in the late Roman Empire.
Remains found near the church of Sant'Omobono (along with column remains, remains of a podium and a large female marble head, probably from an acroterion) had previously been identified as parts of the Temple of the Ops. Now it is believed that they are more likely to be from the temple of Fides, as a bilingual inscription in Greek and Latin has been found next to it and parts of a contract between Asia minor and the Roman Senate - and Fides was the goddess of diplomatic relations.
Photo:
Aedes Opis in Capitolio, Wikipedia (at the end of the article)
(3) In addition, there must have been a third temple of Ops; for Pliny, in an account of L. Caecilius Metellus Delmaticus, who was elected pontifex maximus between 123 and 114 BC, writes of an aedes Opiferae. This is also evident from a note in the lists of the Fasti for 19 December: Opal(ia); feriae Opi . Opi ad Forum. Ops on the Capitol, however, was never called Opifera. Therefore this temple must have stood on the Forum.
Ops opifera is otherwise only mentioned once again at the Volcanalia (to ward off the conflagrations) appointed by Augustus on 23 August, when sacrifices are made to her on the Forum. This is understandable because a fire is especially feared when the harvest is already stored. Afterwards, the foundation day of the older temple on the Capitol with the Opiconsivia was combined with that of the younger temple of the Ops opifera [in foro] with the Opalia.
Nothing more is known about the festive customs for Ops. We only learn that the sacrarium of the Ops Consiva, located in the Regia, could only be entered by the vestal virgins and the pontifex maximus. Their cult was secretive and closed and had a parallel in that the altar of Consus, located at the Circus maximus, lay underground and was only uncovered at festival time. All typical characteristics for chthonic deities.
The statement that vows were made to Ops while sitting and touching the earth, however, probably refers not to the Roman goddess but to Rhea, who was later equated with her.
Art History:
I have added the following illustrations (both from Wikipedia):
(1) An image of the marble statue of Livia Drusilla as Ops, with sheaf of grain and cornucopiae, Roman, 1st century AD, now in the Louvre. Since Ops is depicted standing, it is not the old, original deity. Here it has clear echoes of Abundantia.
(2) This is also the case with the following oil painting by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), "Abundantia", ca. 1630, today in the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, in which the putti are enjoying the fruits from the cornucopia. Under the right foot a purse. This painting is probably the preparatory study for a tapestry.
Sources:
(1) Livius, Ab urbe condita
(2) Macrobius, Saturnalia
(3) Cicero, de Natura deorum
(4) Cicero, Letters to Atticus
(5) Pliny, Naturae Historia
(6) Sextus Pompeius Festus, On the Meaning of Words.
Literature:
(1) The Kleiner Pauly
(2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, Leipzig 1770 (online too)
(3) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (online too)
(4) Theodor Mommsen, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (CIL)
(5) Georg Ürodgi, Caesar, Marcus Antonius and the Public Money Stored in the Temple of Ops, 1978.
(6) Der KleineStowasser, Lateinisches Schulwörterbuch,1960
(7) Gemoll, Griechisches Schul- und Handwörterbuch
Online sources:
(1) zeno.org
(2) theoi.com
(3) wildwinds.com
(4) nabkal.de/romtag.html
(5) Wikipedia
Best regards
Jochen
Jochen:
Diktys and Danae
I have already written about Perseus. Here is a rare coin showing him together with Diktys, who saved him and his mother Danae. This gives me the opportunity to write about this not so well known part of the mythology of Perseus, and about his mother, the beautiful Danae.
1st coin:
Cilicia, Tarsos, Caracalla, 198-217
AE 34, 18.3g, 33.64mm
Av.: AVT KAI M CEVHPOC ANTΩNEINOC CEB
in left and right field Γ- B
in r. field one below the other AM / K
Perseus stg. r., holding harpa in lowered right hand and statuette of Apollo Lykeios
with 2 wolves in his raised left hand, greeting fisherman Diktys, who is walking r. and looking back to the left, carrying with both hands a long pole with a fish hanging from the lower end and a basket from the upper end.
Ref.: Cox Adana Museum 189 in ANS NNM 92, 189 (from where I have taken the legends)
F+, extremely rare, only 1 ex. listed in Ancient Coin Search, sold in 2011 at CNG Auction 88, lot 1009, for $4000!
Notes:
(1) Demiurge office: the Demiurge was one of the most important officials of the city in Tarsos. His main duty was to manage the financial affairs of the city. Caracalla held this office on an honorary basis on the occasion of a large grain donation in 216, because his troop deployments to the east had also placed a heavy burden on the provincial capital of Tarsos.
(2) Tarsos was probably the city that advertised its titles the most. Thus it received the additional designations
AΔPIANOC under Hadrian, CEVHPIANOC under Septimius Severus and ANTΩNEINIANOC under Caracalla. On coins even the name ANTΩNEINOΠOLIC appears!
(3) AM / K stand for the Greek A = ΠPΩTH (the first), M = MEΓICTH (the greatest) and K = KAΛΛICTH (the most beautiful).
(4) Γ B are the Greek numerical values 3 and 2 and mean: the 3 administrative districts of Cilicia, Isauria and Lycaonia which belonged to Tarsos, and the 2 tempels of the imperial cult which Tarsos possessed.
The mythological background is clearly clarified by the image of Perseus. However, there are other coins of a fisherman, with exactly the same fishing gear.
2nd coin:
Cilicia, Anazarbos, Gordian III, 238-244.
AE 31, 17.94g, 201°.
struck 242/3 (year AXC = 261)
Obv.: AVT K M ANTΩNINOC ΓOPΔIANOC CE
Bust, draped and cuirassed, radiate, r.
Rev.: ANAZAPBO - V ENDOΞ MHTPO
Fisherman, in working clothes and wearing Phrygian cap, seated on rock l.,
head turned r., supporting himself with left hand and holding fishing gear in '
raised right hand.
in l. and r. field Γ - B
in ex. ET AΞC
Ref.: SNG of Aulock 8668; SNG Levante 1486; SNG Paris II, 2108; Lindgren 1441; BMC Lycaonia etc. 37, no.31
extremely rare, F+/ almost VF, attractive contrasting patina.
Legends taken from Ziegler, Coins of Cilicia from Smaller German Collections, p.143, no.1114/5 (same die!).
Without a mythological reference, this is a rare depiction of an ancient craft.
Danae:
Danae (Greek = the Danae) was the daughter of the Argive king Akrisios and Eurydike (Apollodor) or Aganippe (Hyginus). Since Akrisios wanted a son, but was already of advanced age, he consulted the Delphic Oracle. The oracle warned him against a male offspring: Danae would bear a son who would kill him. Thereupon he locked Danae in an iron room under the earth and had her closely guarded. This was to be seen for a long time in Argos, until the tyrant Perilaos had it destroyed (Pausanias). But Zeus, who had fallen in love with her, came to her through the roof as golden rain and seduced her, and she bore him Perseus.
When Akrisios once heard the voice of the boy Perseus playing from the Thalamos and thus learned that his daughter had nevertheless given birth, he killed the nurse, but carried the daughter with her son to the altar of Zeus, where she was to swear the truth about her father. He did not believe his daughter's statement that it was Zeus. He suspected his brother Proitos, with whom he had already quarrelled in the womb. Not wanting to kill his daughter, he had her and Perseus locked in a wooden box and thrown into the sea. But Zeus held his hand over them.
Diktys:
Diktys (Greek = the net) was a fisherman and brother of King Polydektes (Greek = the all-grabber) on the small Cycladic island of Seriphos in the Aegean Sea. Both were sons of Magnes with a naiad, Naias Seriphia, an unnamed spring nymph on Seriphos (perhaps a daughter of the river god Peneios in Thessaly). She had fled Magnesia in Thessaly together with her two sons. Through the water she brought with her, she made the island habitable for humans (Apollodor). According to others, Diktys and Polydektes were descendants of Poseidon with Kerebria (Joannes Tzetzes ad Lykophron) or of Peristhenes, the grandson of Nauplios, with Androthoe, the daughter of Perikastor (Schol. ad Apoll. Rhod.).
One day the sea washed a large box onto the beach. Diktys covered it with his net and when he opened it, he found Danae and her son Perseus safe and sound. He brought them both into his house and treated them like his relatives. Perseus he brought up as his own son and took care of Danae.
Their further fate:
There are several variants of the further story, for example by Hyginus. This is the version of Apollodor.
But now Polydektes fell in love with Danae and tried to force her to marry him. Since Perseus stood in his way, he tried to get rid of him. He pretended to want to marry Hippodameia, for whom he still needed a wedding gift. Each guest was to donate a horse to him. Since Perseus had no horse, he promised to fetch him the head of Medusa, which was known to petrify all who saw it.
When Perseus happily returned to Seriphos sooner than expected with the head of Medusa and his wife Andromeda, who had been won in Ethiopia, he found Danae and Perseus begging for protection at the altars where they had had to flee from the violence and lust of Polydektes. Perseus freed them by showing the head of Medusa to Polydektes and his friends, who were sitting at a feast, and turned them all into stone. Since then, Seriphos has been one of the rockiest islands in the Cyclades. Afterwards, Diktys was installed as king of the island by Perseus (Pindar). Visitors to the island are still shown this circle of rocks (Pausanias).
Perseus went to Argos and Danae followed her son and stayed there with her mother Eurydike, while Perseus went in search of Akrisios. The latter had fled to Larissa in Pelasgia out of fear of the oracle. There Perseus had been invited to the funeral celebrations held by King Teutames in honour of his dead father and took part in the pentathlon. When he had thrown a discus into the air, it was deflected by the wind and the will of the gods in such a way that it fell on the foot of Akrisios and killed him. Thus the oracle had been fulfilled even against the will of Perseus. A heroon was erected to Akrisios.
In Athens Perseus had a sacred precinct (Temenos), in which there was an altar to Diktys and Klymene (about whom I have found nothing else), who had saved Perseus (Pausanias).
Background:
In Christian times, Danae was regarded on the one hand by the Church Fathers as the epitome of venal love, but in the Middle Ages as a symbol of shamefulness and as a prefiguration, a foreshadowing of the Virgin Mary, since she had conceived without a husband. This second conception is still alive in J. Grossaert's painting of 1527 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), in which Danae is dressed in the blue that corresponds to the rules for Mary.
More often, however, Danae was seen as the woman who fell for the temptation of gold, with which everything can be bought.
In addition, this myth also shows that no human caution can help against fate. In-so-far, the fate of Akrisios is a tragedy in the ancient sense.
Literary history:
A poignant "Lamentation of Danae" by Simonides of Kos (557/6-468/7 BC) has survived.
Then, of course, the great tragedians took up this theme. Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.) wrote the satyr play "Diktyoulkoi" (= The Net Pullers) in the first half of the 5th century, Sophocles (497/6-406/5 B.C.) composed an "Akrisios" and by Euripides (480 or 485/4-406 BC) there was a trilogy of tragedies of which "Danae" is lost and "Diktys" is only preserved in fragments.
Art history:
Art loved the Danae myth. Danae was depicted clothed in vase painting and naked in Pompeian wall painting (House of G. Rufus). In the Renaissance and Baroque, Danae was a popular subject in the visual arts, as it gave artists the opportunity to present an unclothed woman. Here is a small list of artists who have painted a "Danae":
(1) Correggio (1489-1534): "Danae", 1531 (Rome, Galeria Borghese)
(2) Titian (1488/90-1576) painted a whole series of 6 versions.
(3) Tintoretto (1518-1594), "Danae", 1570, Musee des Beaux-Arts de Lyon
(4) Oracio Gentileschi (1563-1639), "Danae", 1623, Cleveland Museum of Art
(5) Rembrandt (1606-1669), "Danae", 1636, Hermitage, St. Petersburg, later reworked by him. This painting was the subject of a serious attack in 1985.
And from more recent times:
(6) Gustav Klimt (1867-1918), "Danae", 1907, Galerie Würthle, Vienna
By Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), there is the ornamental bronze figure "Danae and Perseus" at the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence.
I have attached the following pics:
(1) The first image shows Danae and the golden shower of Zeus. It is found on a Boiot red-figure bell crater from the period 450-435 B.C. Today it can be seen in the Louvre in Paris.
(2) The second scene shows Danae and her little son Perseus exposed in a chest at sea. They are surrounded by a flock of seagulls. Attic red-figure leucythos, attributed to the Icarus Painter, c.490 BC, Late Archaic/Early Classical, now in the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design in New York (detail).
(3) The last ancient representation is an Attic red-figure Leukythus, attributed to the Providence Painter, c. 480-470 BC, Early Classical, now in the Museum of Art in Toldeo, Spain. King Akrisios is seen on the right, ordering his daughter and her son Perseus to be set adrift in a box at sea. The infant Perseus is already sitting in the box while Danae prepares to climb in.
(4) Of the Renaissance painters, I chose the painting by Corregio because I like so much the two putti checking the gold for authenticity at the bottom right.
Sources:
(1) Homer, Iliad
(2) Apollodor, Library
(3) Ovid, Metamorphoses
(4) Hyginus, Fabulae
(5) Pausanias, Periegesis
Literature:
(1) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, 1770
(2) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Extensive Lexicon of Greek and Roman Mythology
(3) Karl Kerenyi, The Mythology of the Greeks
(4) Robert von Ranke-Graves, Greek Mythology
(5) Aghion/Barbillon/Lissarrague, Reclams Lexikon der antiken Götter und Heroen, 2000.
Online sources:
(1) theoi.com
(2) acsearch.info
(3) wildwinds.com
(4) Wikimedia
Best regards
Jochen
Jochen:
Thanatos - Brother of Sleep
The beautiful image of death as the brother of sleep already occurs in Homer's Iliad, where death is described as "brazen sleep", or in the Odyssey, where the Phaiaks "bring their husband home in a deep sleep quite similar to death". This is in accordance with the Homeric doctrine of the soul, according to which the soul, as a double of the living human being, leaves the body during sleep and death. The only difference is that during sleep it returns to the body, whereas at death it leaves it for good.
The ancients imagined the soul as a "soul bird". In the drawing of the Piot Amphora from Capua (today in the Louvre in Paris), the body of Memnos is carried away from Troy by two warriors, whom the artist has given wings as a reminiscence of the twins Thanatos and Hypnos. Above the mouth of the dead man rises the "soul bird". A conception that existed similarly with the soul bird Ba in ancient Egypt. This pre-Homeric ghost of the soul was originally probably the soul of someone else coming to take that of someone else (Roscher).
Later the soul was seen as a butterfly, and in representations it was given into the hand of Thanatos, which is often seen in vase paintings. This may come from the fact that in Greek the butterfly is called psyche.
In fact, Thanatos (Latin mors, feminine by the way!) is not a mythological figure. He belongs to a group of pre-Olympic deities, such as Moira, Ate, Ker (the doom of death) or Nemesis, who were regarded by the Greeks as more powerful than the gods and whom the gods also had to obey. The great Wilamowitz writes: "Thanatos is not a person of faith, neither as the twin brother of Sleep, nor as the henchman of Hades who wrests Alcestis from Heracles, nor as the comic person in the tale of Sisyphus."
Only Hesiod invents a lineage so that everything has its order. He gives Nyx (the Night) as mother to Death and Hypnos, who brings forth evil fortune from within herself, as well as Moros (the male form of Moira) and Ker. Hyginus gives him Erebos ín addition as father, and Sleep and Death receive Tartarus as their home. They were δεινοί θεοί (terrible gods) whom the shining sun never looks upon; but while the one walks over the earth calm and friendly to men, the mind of the other is of iron. Whom he has once seized, he holds fast without pity. Therefore he is also hateful to the immortal gods.
Since Homer said that his twin brother was Hypnos, sleep, they are depicted side by side on statues (Pausanias). Thanatos with black wings and in black clothing (Horace), Sleep in white. In his hand he has a wreath and a butterfly. An actual cult is not known. According to Pausanias, there was a temple only in Sparta, and a temple is known from Gades where animal sacrifices were also made to him.
In the dramatists, Thanatos also became the redeemer from suffering, for example in Sophokles' "Philoktetes", who longed for death. And even in the death of Socrates, he did not frighten him, but was seen almost as a friend. Life is illness, death is recovery.
Nevertheless, Thanatos, probably "because of the transparency of his name", always retained "something of a pale abstraction, something wavering and, as it were, bloodless" (Heinemann). He writes of the dramatists: "it is as if the process of personification in Thanatos had to be carried out anew by the poet in each individual case, and he never becomes a truly formed figure to such a degree as even Nike and Eros".
In popular belief, Thanatos increasingly takes a back seat to Charon. In mythology, Charon was originally the ferryman across the Acheron. In later times he became the Greek god of death par excellence. It is he who is found in large numbers on the sarcophagi.
Outsmarting death:
The outwitting of death, which has fairy-tale features, occurs in all the fairy tales of the world. In Greek mythology there are the following tales:
Asklepios was so well instructed in healing by Cheiron that he was even able to bring the dead back to life. Among them were Glaukos and Lykurgos. This angered Hades, who saw his kingdom threatened, so that he complained to Zeus about him. And Zeus killed Asklepios with his thunderbolt. Angered by the murder of his son, Apollo then killed the Cyclopes from whom Zeus had received his thunderbolt.
The tragedy "Alkestis" by Euripides is about vicarious death for another and being brought back from the underworld. After the murder of the Cyclopes, Apollo had been condemned by Zeus to tend the flocks with King Admetes. Since Admetes proved to be benevolent, Apollo rewarded him with being able to postpone his death by having a deputy go to his death for him. When Death goes to fetch his beloved consort Alkestis, Apollo announces to him that Herakles will free Alkestis again. Despite reproaching Admetes for not having gone to her death himself instead of Alkestis, Herakles succeeds in bringing Alkestis back from the underworld. Euripides tells how Herakles defeats Thanatos in a wrestling match at Alkestis' grave.
Sisyphus is said to have entered the underworld 2x. It is said that before his death he asked his wife not to bury him. After his death, he then complained about this injustice to Hades, who finally allowed him to return to the upper world to call his wife to account. Sisyphus, however, did not think of going back to Hades, so Hades had to commission Hermes to bring Sisyphus back. Thereupon he was punished to roll a stone up a high mountain for eternity, which then rolled down again.
According to Eukleides of Megara, Thanatos is said to have been deaf and blind so that he could not be dissuaded from his duty by beauty or entreaty. This was also true of Charon, who once spared a beautiful girl on Lesbos and was therefore punished by Zeus with blindness, deafness and lameness.
Art history:
(1) Vase images of Thanatos were numerous in antiquity, where death was man's constant companion. One of the most famous images is found on the so-called, "Euphronios krater", a red-figure calyx krater signed by Euxitheos, the potter, and Euphronios, the painter, ca, 515 BC, formerly in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, now back in Cerveteri, the original site. It shows a scene from the Trojan War in which the body of the Lykian king Sarpedon is carried away by Hypnos (left) and Thanatos (right) while Hermes looks on. This scene from Homer's Iliad Book XVI, is the source for the idea of sleep and death as twin brothers.
(2) Something special is found on the column relief of the Artemision of Ephesus. Thanatos is depicted on the left with his sword sheathed and a butterfly(?) in his right hand, and Hermes Psychopompos (the soul guide) on the right with his kerykeion lowered, both escorting Alkestis between them into the underworld. Here Thanatos is depicted for the first time as a youth in the pose of Eros!
This depiction takes up the beautiful coin from Berytos in the collection of featherz (Forum Ancient Coins). Thanatos in the depiction of the youth from the Ephesian Artemision and Hermes Psychopompos have accompanied a soul to the underworld and are now resting. This is the only coin that actually depicts Death.
1st coin:
Phoenicia, Berytos, Elagabal, 218-222
AE 30
Obv.: IMP CAES M AVR - ANTONINVS AVG
Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from behind laureate, r.
Rev.: COL - IVL - AVG FEL BER
Thanatos, nude, winged, standing r., left foot on rock, holding burning torch down in right hand, left resting on left thigh, facing Hermes standing left, nude, right foot on rock, holding kerykeion down in left hand
coll. featherz, Forum Ancient Coins
(3) The numerous genii of the imperial period with the torch lowered or extinguished and the putto-like representations of Eros on coins no longer have anything to do with the Thanatos of legend and popular belief (Pauly).
2nd coin:
Moesia inferior, Nicopolis ad Istrum, Septimius Severus, 193-211.
AE 16, 2.24g, 16.09mm, 225°.
Obv.: AV KAI - CEVHPOC
Laureate head r.
Rev.: NIKOΠOΛI - T ΠPOC ICTP.
Eros, winged, with crossed legs srg. r., leaning on an upturned torch.
Ref.: a) not in AMNG:
Rev. AMNG I/1, 1368 (depiction)
AMNG I/1, 1384 (legend)
Obv. e.g. AMNG I/1, 1348
b) not in Varbanov
c) Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov (2021) No. 8.14.16.11
Francis Jarman: Eros and Thanatos
A major annoyance is that the figure of the putto-like Eros with the torch is still referred to as Thanatos or the Genius of Death, even by eminent numismatists. Francis Jarman, to whom we owe the fundamental work on Eros on coins, has traced the history of this misunderstanding. And in doing so, he has come across the German classical period, which had developed an idealised idea of ancient Greece since Winckelmann's "Edle Einfalt und stille Größe". The significance of the prevailing aestheticism played a major role in this. The idea of death as the twin brother of sleep was so fascinating that it pushed aside the brutal reality of death. Important personalities such as Lessing and Herder ensured the widespread dissemination of this reception, which then radiated through German Romanticism, and not only in Germany. But Death is not a cherubic angel, apart from the fact that his representation on the Severan coins would make no sense.
Superstitions:
An interesting side note: Since Θ (= 9) was an abbreviation for the Greek thanatos, it was subject to a taboo, like 13 in our days, which also does not exist as the number of a hotel room. So on this coin from Antioch Θ, the 9th letter of the Greek alphabet, was replaced by ΔE, which as 4+5 also makes 9. But there were also AH and IX, or N (for novem) in Rome.
3rd coin:
Constantine I the Great, 307-337
AE 3, 2.63g, 18.56mm, 330°.
Antioch, 9th Offizin, 329-30
Obv.: CONSTANT - INVS MAX AV
Bust, draped and cuirassed, wearing rosette diadem, r.
Rev.: PROVIDEN - TIAE AVG
So-called. Camp gate, with 2 towers and without gate
above star
in l. and r. field Δ - E (for officina 9!)
in ex. SMANT
Ref.: RIC VII, Antioch 84
Very rare (R5), almost SS, sand patina, patina damage on top of Rev.
Notes:
(1) The Aithiopis was an epic poem describing events at the end of the Trojan War that Homer had not covered. These include the battles of the Amazons before Troy, Penthesilea's fight with Achilles, the intervention of the Aithiopians under King Memnon in the war, and the quarrel between Ajas and Odysseus after the death of Achilles. Unfortunately, it has not been preserved.
(2) Eukleides of Megara (c. 450 - between 369/367 BC) was a Greek philosopher and founder of the Megarian school. He was a student of Socrates and is said to have been present at his death. The central theme of his philosophy seems to have been goodness, but his writings are lost.
Sources:
(1) Homer, Iliad
(2) Homer, Odyssey
(3) Aithiopis
(4) Hesiod, Theogony
(5) Hyginus, Fabulae
(6) Pausanias, Periegesis
(7) Cicero, De Natura Deorum
Literature:
(1) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythology (also online)
(2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, Leipzig 1770 (also online)
(3) The Little Pauly
(4) Patricia Lawrence, Wings, Daimonia, Asomata: The Embodiment of the Bodiless (more relevant to numismatics than they may seem)
(5) Francis Jarman, Eros and Thanatos, 2011
Best regards
Jochen
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