Places and Things Depicted on Coins
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AeliusBust of Aelius in the Louvre Museum, Paris. Photo by me taken in May 2014.Constantine IV
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AgrippaBust of Agrippa, on show at the "Moi, Auguste" exhibition in the Grand Palais, Paris in 2014. Photo by me, taken in May 2014Constantine IV
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Alexander SeverusCapitoline museums
I'm not 100% sure that it's Alexander Severus.J. B.
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AntinousBust of Antinous, as a Pharoah. In the Louvre Museum, Paris. Photo taken by me in May 2014.
His appearance is more like Hadrian's.Constantine IV
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AphroditeMarble statue of a naked Aphrodite crouching at her bathBacchus
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Aphrodite of AphrodiasisStatue of Aphrodite of Aphrodisias, today in the Archaeological Museum of Aphrodisias, Caria. Depicted on coins from Aphrodisias.Jochen
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Aphrodite of CnidusPallazo Altemps
Roman copy of Praxiteles's original.J. B.
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ApolloFrom the Temple of Apollo at Cyrene in modern LibyaBacchus
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Apollo kitharoidos (holding a lyre). Marble, Roman artwork, 2nd century CE, influence of Hellenistic statuary of the 2nd century BC. From the Temple of Apollo at Cyrene (modern Libya).The Apollo of Cyrene is a colossal Roman statue of Apollo found at the ancient city of Cyrene, Libya. This enormous sculpture was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century at the Temple of Apollo at Cyrene in Libya, where it was probably the main cult image. It was excavated by the British explorers and amateur archaeologists Captain Robert Murdoch Smith and Commander Edwin A. Porcher. The statue was found broken into 121 pieces, lying near the large plinth where it originally stood. The fragments were later reassembled in the British Museum to create a relatively intact statue with only the right arm and left hand missing.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_of_CyreneJoe Sermarini
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Apollo kitharoidos, Vatican Museum, a 2nd-century AD colossal marble statue by an unknown Roman sculptor.An Apollo Citharoedus is a statue or other image of Apollo with a Kithara (lyre). Among the best-known examples is this Apollo Citharoedus of the Vatican Museums, a 2nd-century AD colossal marble statue by an unknown Roman sculptor. Apollo is shown crowned with laurel and wearing the long, flowing robe of the Ionic bard. The statue was found in 1774, with seven statues of the Muses, in the ruins of Gaius Cassius Longinus' villa near Tivoli, Italy. The sculptures are preserved in the Hall of the Muses, in the Museo Pio-Clementino of the Vatican Museums. Joe Sermarini
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Apollo LykeiosThe statue of Apollo Lykeios is a standard depiction on coins from Marcianopolis. It shows Apollo resting after defeating the Python snake. It is suggested that this statue was made by Praxiteles, but Euphranor is named too.
The name Lykeios is referring to the Lykeion, a famous grove in Athens, were the original statue was located. The original is lost but several Roman copies have survived.
Jochen
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Apollo SauroktonosThe statue of Apollo Sauroktonos (the Lizard Killer) was a work of Praxiteles. The original is lost, but several Roman copies have been found. This one stands in the Louvre/Paris. Nikopolis ad Istrum will have had a copy too. Therefore it was depicted on many of its coins.
Jochen
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Ara PacisThe Ara Pacis Augustae (Latin, "Altar of Augustan Peace"; commonly shortened to Ara Pacis) is an altar in Rome dedicated to Pax, the Roman goddess of Peace. The monument was commissioned by the Roman Senate on July 4, 13 B.C. to honor the return of Augustus to Rome after three years in Hispania and Gaul, and consecrated on January 30, 9 B.C. Originally located on the northern outskirts of Rome, a Roman mile from the boundary of the pomerium on the west side of the Via Flaminia, it stood in the northeastern corner of the Campus Martius, the former flood plain of the Tiber River and gradually became buried under 4 metres (13 ft) of silt deposits. It was reassembled in its current location, now the Museum of the Ara Pacis, in 1938.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ara_PacisJoe Sermarini
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Ariadne and BacchusAriadne and Bacchus in the British MuseumBacchus
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Artemis Ephesia. Known as the beautiful Artemis Ephesia, in the Ephesus Archaeological Museum, it is one of 4 cult statues found in the Prytaneion in 1956, of Roman 1st century manufacture.
Photo William Hooton August 2021. Will A. Hooton
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AsclepiusCapitoline museumsJ. B.
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Asklepios of PhyromachosHead of Asklepios. Roman marble copy of the head of Asklepios made by Phyromachos, today in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg/Russia. The famous statue of Asklepios made by Phyromachos stood in the Asklepieion in Pergamon. Its head is found on several coins from Pergamon.
Phyromachos was the Pergamenian court sculptor. He has made too the Gigantomachy of the Pergamon Altar today in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.Jochen
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Athlit Bronze War Galley RamThe Athlit ram, found in 1980 off the coast of Israel near at Athlit Bay (just south of Haifa), is the one of a few surviving ancient war galley rams. Carbon 14 dating of timber remnants date it to between 530 BC and 270 BC. It was once fit on the prow of an ancient oared warship. This would be driven into the hull of an enemy ship in order to puncture it and thus sink, or at least disable, the ship. It is made of a single casting of bronze weighing 465kg and measures about 2.10m long. The ram is thus one of the largest bronze objects to survive from the ancient world and is currently on display in the National Maritime Museum, Haifa, Israel. Captured rams were once used to ornament Octavian's battle monument at Actium, Greece. Only the sockets that held them remain. The valuable bronze was melted long ago.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_ram
http://www.learningsites.com/Athlit/AthlitRam_home.php
For other recovered galley rams see:
https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2013/04/rare-bronze-rams-found-at-site-of-final.html
https://www.historytoday.com/ann-natanson/roman-naval-power-raising-ramJoe Sermarini
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BalbinusBust of Balbinus. Ephesus Archaeological Museum. Photo William Hooton August 2021. Will A. Hooton
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Balbusmuseum on PalatinJ. B.
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Barberini Faun (Drunken Satyr) located in the Glyptothek in Munich, GermanyThe life-size marble statue known as the Barberini Faun or Drunken Satyr is located in the Glyptothek in Munich, Germany. A Faun is the Roman equivalent of a Greek Satyr. In Greek mythology, satyrs were human-like male woodland spirits with several animal features, often a goat-like tail, hooves, ears, or horns. Satyrs attended Dionysus. The position of the right arm over the head was a classical artistic convention indicating sleep. The statue is believed to have once adorned Hadrian's Mausoleum. The historian Procopius recorded that during the siege of Rome in 537 the defenders had hurled down upon the Goths the statues adorning Hadrian's Mausoleum. When discovered, the statue was heavily damaged; the right leg, parts of both hands, and parts of the head were missing. Johann Winckelmann speculated that the place of discovery and the statue's condition suggested that it had been such a projectile.
Joe Sermarini
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Bronze age monumental bas-relief of Warpalawas, king of Tyana (on right), praying to the sky/storm god Tarhunta (on left).Teshub was the Hurrian god of sky, thunder, and storms. Taru was the name of a similar Hattic Storm God, whose mythology and worship as a primary deity continued and evolved through descendant Luwian and Hittite cultures. In these two, Taru was known as Tarhun / Tarhunt- / Tarhuwant- / Tarhunta, names derived from the Anatolian root *tarh "to defeat, conquer." Tarhunta was assimilated into and identified with the Hurrian Teshub by the religious reforms of Muwatalli II, ruler of the Hittite New Kingdom in the early 13th century BCE. Teshub reappears in the post-Hurrian cultural successor kingdom of Urartu as Tesheba, one of their chief gods; in Urartian art he is depicted standing on a bull. The depiction on this coin is from a monumental relief found at Tyana, an ancient city in the Anatolian region of Cappadocia, in modern Kemerhisar, Niğde Province, Central Anatolia, Turkey. It was the capital of a Luwian-speaking Neo-Hittite kingdom in the 1st millennium BC.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tarhunta_Warpalawas_IstArchMu.jpg
Photographer: QuartierLatin1968Joe Sermarini
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Bronze Cupid 2nd Century British MuseumBacchus
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Bust of Antoninus Pius from the British museumareich
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Bust of Lucius Verus from the British museumareich
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Bust of Marcus Aurelius from the British museumareich
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bust of TraianVatican museumsJ. B.
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Bust of Trajan from the British museumareich
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Capitoline WolfCapitoline Museums
It seems it's from 13th century - not etruscan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She-Wolf_of_the_CapitolJ. B.
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CaracallaBust of Bassianus, as Caesar Antoninus. In the Louvre. My photo, taken in May 2014.Constantine IV
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Caracalla brought to lifeAs far as colorizing ancient busts goes, this is the best I've ever seen - Caracalla, face to face.Steven H
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CeresStatue of Ceres, in the Louvre Museum. Photo taken by me in May 2014.Constantine IV
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ClaudiusVatican museumsJ. B.
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Colossal statue of the river NileThe new wing of the Vatican Museums, Museo Pio-Clementine, is home to Colossus of the Nile the river god, identified by the sphinxes and crocodiles, is represented as a dispenser of blessings. The 16 boys are thought to be an allusion to the number of cubits the level of the Nile rises when it floods, fertilizing the region which it crosses. The reliefs on the base represent life on the banks of the river. It is a 1st century A.D. Roman work most likely based on a Hellenistic original. Jochen
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CommodusAgain Commodus portrayed as HerculesJay GT4
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CommodusBust of Commodus. Ephesus Archaeological Museum. Photo William Hooton. Will A. Hooton
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Commodus as HerculesThis magnificent statue depicts the Emperor Commodus as Hercules. Currently on display at the Musei Capitolini in Rome. Commodus also minted coins with him as Hercules.Jay GT4
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Commodus as HerculesCapitoline museumsJ. B.
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Constantine the GreatMarble head of Constantine the Great at the Musei Capitolini in RomeJay GT4
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Corinthian helmetsMuseum - Olympia J. B.
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Crouching VenusThe British museumJ. B.
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Cybele enthroned, with lion, cornucopia, and mural crown. Roman marble, c. 50 AD. Getty MuseumCybele enthroned, with lion, cornucopia, and mural crown. Roman marble, c. 50 AD. Getty Museum
Cybele is an Anatolian mother goddess. Phrygia's only known goddess, she was probably its national deity. Greek colonists in Asia Minor adopted and adapted her Phrygian cult and spread it to mainland Greece and to the more distant western Greek colonies around the 6th century BC.
In Greece, Cybele met with a mixed reception. She became partially assimilated to aspects of the Earth-goddess Gaia, of her possibly Minoan equivalent Rhea, and of the harvest–mother goddess Demeter. Some city-states, notably Athens, evoked her as a protector, but her most celebrated Greek rites and processions show her as an essentially foreign, exotic mystery-goddess who arrives in a lion-drawn chariot to the accompaniment of wild music, wine, and a disorderly, ecstatic following. Uniquely in Greek religion, she had a eunuch mendicant priesthood. Many of her Greek cults included rites to a divine Phrygian castrate shepherd-consort Attis, who was probably a Greek invention. In Greece, Cybele became associated with mountains, town and city walls, fertile nature, and wild animals, especially lions.
In Rome, Cybele became known as Magna Mater ("Great Mother"). The Roman state adopted and developed a particular form of her cult after the Sibylline oracle in 205 BC recommended her conscription as a key religious ally in Rome's second war against Carthage (218 to 201 BC). Roman mythographers reinvented her as a Trojan goddess, and thus an ancestral goddess of the Roman people by way of the Trojan prince Aeneas. As Rome eventually established hegemony over the Mediterranean world, Romanized forms of Cybele's cults spread throughout Rome's empire. Greek and Roman writers debated and disputed the meaning and morality of her cults and priesthoods, which remain controversial subjects in modern scholarshipJoe Sermarini
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Cybele, Marble statue of Cybele from Formia in Lazio, circa 60 BCEMarble statue of Cybele from Formia in Lazio, circa 60 BCE. From the collection of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Item number IN 480.
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cybele_formiae.jpg
Photo by ChrisO, 26 August 2008Joe Sermarini
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Dacian Draco on Trajan's ColumnThe Dacian Draco was the standard ensign of troops of the ancient Dacian people, which can be seen in the hands of the soldiers of Decebalus in several scenes depicted on Trajan's Column in Rome, Italy. It has the form of a dragon with open wolf-like jaws containing several metal tongues. The hollow dragon's head was mounted on a pole with a fabric tube affixed at the rear. In use, the draco was held up into the wind, or above the head of a horseman, where it filled with air and gave the impression it was alive while making a shrill sound as the wind passed through its strips of material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacian_DracoJoe Sermarini
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Dacian Draco on Trajan's ColumnThe Dacian Draco was the standard ensign of troops of the ancient Dacian people, which can be seen in the hands of the soldiers of Decebalus in several scenes depicted on Trajan's Column in Rome, Italy. It has the form of a dragon with open wolf-like jaws containing several metal tongues. The hollow dragon's head was mounted on a pole with a fabric tube affixed at the rear. In use, the draco was held up into the wind, or above the head of a horseman, where it filled with air and gave the impression it was alive while making a shrill sound as the wind passed through its strips of material. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacian_DracoJoe Sermarini
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DionysusPallazo Massimo alle TermeJ. B.
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Divus Romulo MausoleumThe ruin of the sepulcher of Divus Romulus (died 209 A.D.), the son of Emperor Maxentius, is situated in a large quadrilateral enclosure forming part of the villa of Maxentius, on the Appian way, about one mile from the gate of S. Sebastian. The building is sometimes erroneously called the stables of the Circus of Caracalla.Joe Sermarini
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Domitian A somewhat odd, colossal bust of Domitian, part of a collosal statue. Ephesus Archaeological Museum. Photo William Hooton August 2021. Will A. Hooton
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EagleA limestone sculpture of an Eagle, (representing Jupiter) clutching a Snake in its beak (representing Death). Was found in September 2013 during building work in the Minories area of the City of London. It was made in what is now the Cotswolds area of England around 1900 years ago and would have sat in an alcove of a tomb, just outside the city boundary of Londinium. I was lucky to see this back in November 2013 as it is now no longer on display.Constantine IV
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Eirene with infant PlutosRoman copy of the famous statue made by Kephisodotos, father of Praxiteles, today in the Glyptothek in Munich/GermanyJochen
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ElagabalusCapitoline museumsJ. B.
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empressCapitoline museums
I can't remember who it is - maybe Herennia EtruscillaJ. B.
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Ephesian ArtemisI took this photo while visiting the ancient city of Ephesus, Turkey, in August of 2013. Along one of the avenues was this relief of one of Ephesus' most unique symbols: the Ephesian Artemis. Large cult statues of this goddess would be placed in the Artemis Temple just outside the city. Ephesian Artemis can occasionally be found on the reverse sides of Seleucid coins.ThatParthianGuy
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Eros of PariumA Roman copy of the statue Eros of Parium made by Praxiteles, found in Nicopolis a Istrum, today in the Archaeological Museum Sofia/Bulgaria. Depicted on coins from Parium.Jochen
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Eros Stringing his BowThis statue is made by Lysipp. The original ist lost, but several Roman cipies are found. This one is located in the Musei Capitolini in Rom. Depictions of this statue are found on coins of Philippopolis and Nikaia (NIcaea).Jochen
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Farnese HerculesThe Farnese Hercules is one of the most famous ancient sculptures. It is a colossal copy made after a smaller Lysippos original, and intended to adorn the Baths of Caracalla. The sculpture was discovered and removed from the baths in 1546, entering the famous collection of Alessandro Farnese. It now resides in the museum of Naples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnese_HerculesJoe Sermarini
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FortunaVatican museumsJ. B.
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Funeral Stele inspired by LRBC - GLORIA ROMANORVMFuneral monument (presumably) inspired by (of after) the GLORIA ROMANORVM coins issued in the 350s by Magentius, Constantius II, Decentius & Nepotianus.
At the Landesmuseum at Koblenz, Germany.Belisarius
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Ganymed of LeocharesGanymedes carried off by the eagle. Marble, Roman copy after a bronze original from ca. 325 BC. Galleria dei Candelabri, Musei Vaticani/Rome. Depicted at least on one coin of Dardanos/Troas.
Jochen
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Glykon SnakeStatuette of Glykon Snake, today in Museum of Constanta/Romania. Depicted on many coins from Thrace and Moesia inferior.Jochen
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goddesVatican museumsJ. B.
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Gordian IIICapitoline museumsJ. B.
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Greek Youth - British MuseumGreek statue of a youth with a 'bowl' haircutBacchus
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head of Alexander the GreatVatican museumsJ. B.
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head of Aphroditemuseum on PalatinJ. B.
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Head of ConstantinusCapitoline museumsJ. B.
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head of horse from Selene's chariot from east tympanum of ParthenonThe British museum Elgin MarblesJ. B.
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Heracles and the Stymphalian birds. Detail of a Roman mosaic from Llíria, Spain.The Stymphalian birds are man-eating birds with beaks of bronze, sharp metallic feathers they could launch at their victims, and poisonous dung.
"These fly against those who come to hunt them, wounding and killing them with their beaks. All armour of bronze or iron that men wear is pierced by the birds; but if they weave a garment of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian birds are caught in the cork garment, just as the wings of small birds stick in bird-lime. These birds are of the size of a crane, and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of the ibis." — Pausanias. Description of Greece, 8.22.5
These birds were pets of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt; or had been brought up by Ares, the god of war. They migrated to a marsh in Arcadia to escape a pack of wolves. There they bred quickly and swarmed over the countryside, destroying crops, fruit trees, and townspeople.
The Sixth Labour of Heracles. The Stymphalian birds were defeated by Heracles (Hercules) in his sixth labour for Eurystheus. Heracles could not go into the marsh to reach the nests of the birds, as the ground would not support his weight. Athena, noticing the hero's plight, gave Heracles a rattle called krotala, which Hephaestus had made especially for the occasion. Heracles shook the krotala (similar to castanets) on a certain mountain that overhung the lake and thus frightening the birds into the air. Heracles then shot many of them with feathered arrows tipped with poisonous blood from the slain Hydra. The rest flew far away, never to plague Arcadia again. Heracles brought some of the slain birds to Eurystheus as proof of his success.
The surviving birds made a new home on an island of Aretias in the Euxine Sea. The Argonauts later encountered them there.
According to Mnaseas, they were not birds, but women and daughters of Stymphalus and Ornis, and were killed by Heracles because they did not receive him hospitably. In the temple of the Stymphalian Artemis, however, they were represented as birds, and behind the temple there were white marble statues of maidens with birds' feet.Joe Sermarini
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HerculesCapitoline museumsJ. B.
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Hercules of the Forum BoariumHercules of the Forum Boarium is a gilded 2nd century B.C. slightly over-lifesize bronze statue, which was found in the Forum Boarium in Rome. This statue is probably the one mentioned by Pliny, which originally stood in the Temple of Hercules Victor, by the Tiber. It lacks the lion skin. Perhaps a actual lion skin was once draped on it. The sculpture is now in the Musei Capitolini, Rome.Joe Sermarini
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Hercules of the Theatre of PompeyThe Hercules of the Theatre of Pompey, from the 2nd Century A.D., was discovered in 1864. It had been carefully buried under protective tiles, incised FCS (fulgor conditum summanium), indicating that it had been struck by lightning, and had been carefully interred on the spot. The figure supports himself lightly on his grounded vertical club; the skin of the Nemean Lion is draped over his left forearm, he holds the apples of Hesperides in his left hand. The sculpture is now in the round room area of Museo Pio-Clementino.Joe Sermarini
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Hermes Bearing the Infant DionysosHermes bearing the infant Dionysos, made by Praxiteles, around 364 BC. Hellenistic marble copy, now in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia/Greece. Depicted on a coin from Philippopolis.
Jochen
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Hermes Fastening his SandalStatue of Hermes Fastening his Sandal, made by Lysipp c.320 BC. Roman copy from the Louvre/Paris. This statue is depicted on coins of Marcianopolis.
A new research by von Mosch (2013) shows that Hermes is rather loosening his sandal, which can be seen by the position of his fingers. In this way fastening is not possible!Jochen
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Hermes with infant Dionysosmuseum in OlympiaJ. B.
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Isis from the Villa HadrianaIsis, marble statue from the Hadrian period, found in the 17th century at the Villa Hadriana near Tivoli. Isis, crowned with small throne (= aset, Egyptian name for Isis), in long garment with Isis knot over her breast, holding situla in lowered l. hand and sistrum in raised r. hand.
The original statue was acquired 1753 for the Capitoline Museums/Rome, 1798 displaced by Napoleon to Paris, 1815 donated by Pope Pius VII to King Louis XVIII, and still in the Louvre/Paris.Jochen
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Julia DomnaVatican museums
J. B.
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Julia PaulaBust attributed to Julia Paula. Ephesus Archaeological Museum. Photo William Hooton August 2021Will A. Hooton
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Julius CaesarBust of Julius Caesar, on show at the "Moi, Auguste" exhibition in the Grand Palais, Paris in 2014. Photo by me, taken in May 2014Constantine IV
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Jupiter, Pluto, Persephone, Neptune, AmphitritePallazo AltempsJ. B.
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LABORS OF HERCULESA Roman sarcophagus from 250-260 A.D. depicting the labors of Hercules found at Pappa Tiberiopolis, Pisidia in the Archaeological Museum, Konya.
Photo by David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada.Joe Sermarini
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LiviaBust of Livia, wife to Augustus. Ephesus Archaeological Museum. Photo William Hooton August 2021.Will A. Hooton
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Ludovisi AresPalazzo Altemps
Roman copy of greek original from aproximately 330 BC.J. B.
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Marcus AureliusCapitoline museums
this statue survived because in Christian times Romans thought it's statue of Constantine I.J. B.
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Marcus AureliusPallazo AltempsJ. B.
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Marcus AureliusBust of Marcus Aurelius. Ephesus Archaeological Museum. Photo William Hooton August 2021. Will A. Hooton
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Marcus Aurelius Equestrian statueThis is the copy of the Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline hill. The original is in the Capitoline Museum, this replica sits outside. It is said to have survived because it was mistakenly believed to be of Constantine the Great. Picture taken September 2008.Jay GT4
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Maria of Alania Byzantine empress by marriages to emperors Michael VII Doukas and Nikephoros III Botaneiates (aka Maria-Martha of Georgia of Bagrationi royal dynasy)Maria of Alania (born Martha, Georgian, 1053-1118) was Byzantine empress by marriages to emperors Michael VII Doukas and Nikephoros III Botaneiates. At the time of her marriage, Georgian Maria was one of only two non-Byzantine princesses to marry a Byzantine heir and the only one to give birth to an heir.
Anna Komnene, in her medieval biographical text Alexiad, describes the beautiful Georgian princess Maria of Alania: "...after Michael Ducas' deposition, when he had advised the latter's successor, Nicephorus Botaniates, to take her in marriage, because she came from another country and had not a crowd of kinsfolk to give the Emperor trouble, and he had told Botaniates a great deal about her family and personal beauty, and often praised her to him. And certainly she was as slender of stature as a cypress, her skin was white as snow, and though her face was not a perfect round, yet her complexion was exactly like a spring flower or a rose. And what mortal could describe the radiance of her eyes? Her eyebrows were well-marked and red-gold, while her eyes were blue. Full many a painter's hand has successfully imitated the colors of the various flowers the seasons bring, but this queen's beauty, the radiance of her grace and the charm and sweetness of her manners surpassed all description and all art. Never did Apelles or Pheidias or any of the sculptors produce a statue so beautiful. The Gorgon's head was said to turn those who looked upon it into stone, but anyone who saw the Queen walking or met her unexpectedly, would have gaped and remained rooted to the spot, speechless, as if apparently robbed of his mind and wits. There was such harmony of limbs and features, such perfect relation of the whole to the parts and of the parts to the whole, as was never before seen in a mortal body, she was a living statue, a joy to all true lovers of the beautiful. In a word, she was an incarnation of Love come down to this terrestrial globe."
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_of_AlaniaJoe Sermarini
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Maximinus ThraxCapitoline museumsJ. B.
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