Apollo LykeiosHere we have another Apollo!
Macrinus & Diadumenian AD 217-218
AE28 (Pentassarion), 11.86g
struck under the legate Furius Pontianus
obv. AVT KM OPEL CEV MAKREINOC KM OPE ANTWNEINOC
confronted busts of Macrinus, draped and laureate, l., and Diadumenian, bare-
headed, r.
rev. VP PONTIANOV MAR - KIANOPOLEITWN (AR ligate)
Apollo, nude, with curled hair, standing facing, head r., holding r. hand above his
head, bow in l. hand, r. before him a tree stump with a snake coiling around
E in l. field
Varbanov I, pp. 91-92 No.881; Moushmov 520, pic 726
VF
Apollo in the attitude of the so-called Lykeios, typical for Marcianopolis
In Athens we have advices of a Apollo Lykeios cult already in very early times. If you want to look at coins, where Apollo is depicted really with wolfes you had to go to Cilicia. The Apollo depicted on this coin in this attitude is connected only to Athens, where the famous sculptor Praxiteles (or perhaps Euphranor) had made this statue for a sanctuary in the 4th century BC, obviously not as cult statue but for the Temenos, the park-like temple area of the Lykeion. This famous Lykeion was situated north-east of Athens outside the city and has included not only the sanctuary of Apollon but the Gymnasion too where the Sophists were teaching, Protagoras and then Aristoteles with his scholars. This is the origin of our Lyceum.
This statue immediately became famous and was copied over and over, in this typical, sensual hand-above-head position. Because this statue is standing frontal, it could well be used in temples, or as consecration gift iside and outside the sanctuary especially if a new founded city was in need of it. Lucian writes, that Apollo was leaning at a cippus, with a bow in his l. hand and the r. hand above the head as if resting after a great effort. Pick says, due to the fact that all Marcianopolis types are showing a tree stump, that the original statue was made of bronze and therefore doesn't need any support. The copies were made of marble mostly and have the support in various ways. Today we know the original was of bronze and have had the support of the cippus too, but for compositorical reasons only. For ancient sculptures Lucian is the best source because he had seen them with his own eyes!
As additum a pic of the most beautiful Louvre statue I know which reflects exactly the type of Marcianopolis.
Here a summary of the various Lykeios interpretations:
1. Lykeios = man from Lycia. This could be a good explanation for the fact, that
Apollo defends Troy against the Greek, what could be an advice to an
origin in Asia Minor. This is firmed up by interpretations of Hittite inscriptions. This
was the opinion of Wilamowitz too.
2. Lykeios from Lykos = the wolfe. Apollo Lykeios so the defender of the herdsmen
and their sheep against robbery by wolfes. This would be an expression of an old
animal-like looking deity, the 'Wolfe-God' Lykan-Lykurgus.
3. Lykeios = the Bright, the Shining, like Phoibos, essential identical with the
lionshaped, Anatolean god of light Syros.
Resume: Apollon in our recent knowledge was a great bow-carrying god of healing and death of the scythic-indoeuropean northern people, who in his wolfe symbolic reveals his chthonic aspects. At the time of the indoeuropean invasions in the Aegaeis he was melted with the Letoids of Asia Minor, the son and brother consorts of the mediterranean virgin-mother Leto-Artemis. The famous god of the oracle, that he was always in historical times, keeps always a certain strange character, what would explain the estimation of the Delphic Apollo by Kroisos the famous Lydian king.
Some more contributions here
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=21181.msg141126#msg141126Lit.:
Der kleine Pauly
Hederich, Gründliches Mythologisches Lexikon
Thanks to Patricia Lawrence
Best regards