The radiating stripes for hair combed from the crown of the
head on the mature major deities, as we see it frequently as late and as far from
Alexandria or Olympia as the Danubians, is a simplified
schematic rendering, whichever deity we see it on. Naturally, where a simple
bust is repeated merely in lieu of an empress, it is especially apt to be
schematic.
It is not, however, a distinct hairstyle.
The attached is only a tiny
hemidrachm with a
head of
Zeus, but it is Greek, Olympia, Achaean League, and, though Late Hellenistic images are rather remote from Phidias it is not
schematic but a skillful shorthand rendering (for a coin only 17mm in
diameter) for the hair combed from the crown of the
head.
You can perceive how the radiating stripes devolved from such as this, perhaps even more easily on a
Serapis, which was farther from naturalism to begin with.
BTW, an
Asklepios or a
Herakles (but not most
Herakles) image might also have hair shown as combed from the crown of the
head. Whether a particular
head has
back hair rolled up, or curls down to the nape of the neck (as on the attached), or even hair bound up in what we would call a snood, would depend on what the sculptor or the tenders of the cult wanted to have.
Pat L.
P.S. and a common Poseidon, an early acquisition, to keep
Zeus company:
26 X 00
AE18
Syracuse, time of Hieron.
Sear GCV 1223, but this coin is no more than 18.5mm and
his listing is
AE22.
Head of Poseidon, wearing
taenia, to l.;
rev., elaborate trident, flanked by dolphins.
Legend also differently divided: here it is IERO NOS, with the omicron
Sear mentions below the omega of
his name.
Pat L.