My First Animal On A Coin.

Thanks, Bob. There have been a few interesting (to me) animal coins appearing recently, and I was lucky enough to win this tiny coin from Mytilene in Lesbos with a calf's head reverse. How an early engraver could put so much detail on a coin of 8mm diameter shows amazing skill.

A 'net search indicated that the calf head provides an insight into the island's agrarian roots and the importance of nature within its culture.

There is a brief description and a map for Mytilene on page 23 of this thread.

Mytilene, Lesbos. 400-350 BC.
Obverse: Laureate head of Apollo right. Reverse: Calf's head right, Kerykeion (caduceus) to left. Reverse Inscription: MY. Bronze. Diameter: 8 mm. Weight: 0.7 gr
Reference: BMC 20; SNG Cop 373.

It certainly is, Bob

The reverse of this Philip I coin from Hieropolis with Atargatis seated on a lion caught my eye as I had not heard of Atargatis previously. Atargatis (known as Derceto by the Greeks) was the chief goddess of northern Syria in Classical antiquity. Primarily she was a fertility goddess, but, as the baalat ("mistress") of her city and people, she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Her nature closely resembled that of her Phoenician counterpart, Astarte, and after spreading to various other parts of the Greek world she was generally regarded as a form of Aphrodite. She was commonly portrayed wearing the mural crown and holding a sheaf of grain, while the lions who support her throne suggest her strength and her power over nature. Often shown with the tail of a fish, she was possibly the first recorded mermaid.

From the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854):
HIERA´POLIS, the "Sacred City" of Cyrrhestica in Syria, situated on the high road from Antioch to Mesopotamia, 24 M. P. to the W. of the Euphrates and 36 M. P. to the SW. of Zeugma, 2 1/2 days' journey from Beroea, and 5 days' from Antioch.

Hierapolis, or Hieropolis as it is called always on coins and in Stephanus of Byzantium, obtained its Hellenic name from Seleucus Nicator, owing to the circumstance of BAMBYCE, as it was called by the natives, being the chief seat of the worship of the "Syrian goddess" Astarte, or personification of the passive powers of Nature.

Atargatis, from an Oxford Classical Dictionary entry by Francis Redding Walton and Antony Spawforth:
Atargatis (Aramaic 'Atar-'Ata), the goddess of Hierapolis-Bambyce in Syria whose usual name among Greeks and Romans was the 'Syrian goddess'; a mother-goddess, giver of fertility. Her temple, rebuilt c.300 BC by Stratonice, wife of Seleucus I, was plundered by Antiochus IV and by Crassus, but was still in Lucian's day one of the greatest and holiest in Syria; its site has yet to be found. Her consort was Hadad; his throne was flanked by bulls, that of Atargatis by lions. At Ascalon, Atargatis was represented as half woman, half fish. Fish and doves were sacred to her; the myth records that, having fallen into a lake, Atargatis was saved by the fish, or, in another version, that Atargatis was changed into a fish, and her daughter Semiramis into a dove.

A more fanciful story goes - Atargatis fell in love with a mortal shepherd whose name was Adad and they had a daughter together called Semiramis who later became the queen of Assyria. Atargatis caused the death of her husband by accident and so drowned herself in the lake due to the guilt. She was still beautiful in death and the waters transformed her into a woman with the tail of a fish, she had now become a mermaid.

Philip I of Hierapolis in Cyrrhestica (Syria). 244-249 AD.
Obverse; laureate draped and cuirassed bust of Philip I right. Obverse legend; AYTOK K M IOYΛI ΦIΛIΠΠOC CEB. Reverse; Atargatis seated on lion walking right, holding sceptre in right hand. Reverse legend; ΘEAC CYPIAC IEPOΠOΛITΩN. Bronze. Diameter: 27 mm. Weight: 14.69 gr.
Reference: RPC CRS 64a; SNG Cop 63; BMC 57v.

Note: The distance given in the second paragraph as m.p. (milia passuum or mille), consisted of a thousand paces as measured by every other step - as in the total distance of the left foot hitting the ground 1,000 times. When Roman legionaries were well-fed and harshly driven in good weather, they created longer miles.

Thanks, Erafjel. There are some interesting bronzes popping up just now.

Having an interest in ships and in wildlife, this coin from Megara was clearly suitable for the collection. Dolphins can be pretty friendly towards humans, and having the prow on the obverse and two dolphins on the reverse reminded me of interactions witnessed in the Falkland Islands. Each time when entering the south end of Falkland Sound we would see a pod of Commerson's dolphins swimming quickly towards us. They would swim and play from side to side of the ship's bow, apparently enjoying the pressure wave from the bow wave. After a short period of play they would swim off again.

Interestingly Megara was also the name of the wife of Heracles. As a reward for defeating Orchomenos, King Creon of Thebes gave his daughter Megara to Heracles in marriage, and Megara bore him three sons.

Much has been written about Megara, but a condensed history is shown below, extracted from the informative "classicalbackpacking" web site.

Officially part of Attica today, Megara has historically been an enemy of Athens.

The plain of Megara is not extensively arable. There exists around 100 sq. kilometers of good farmland which was most likely devoted fully to wheat and barley during the city's early existence. It forms roughly a triangle shape, widest as the plain reaches the sea, though there are no rivers that drain it. The plain lies between the Cerata/Pateras mountain range to the east and the Gerania range to the west. These ranges defined the political boundaries of Megara, although in the archaic period the Sanctuary of Hera at Perachora, and even the entire Perachora peninsula, fell under the control of Megara (it later became a Corinthian possession and today it is officially part of the prefecture of Corinth). During that same period of time, Megara may have controlled the plain to the west of Gerania all the way to the isthmus. Population estimates of ancient Megara at its height (during the fifth century BC) place the number of inhabitants at not over 40,000. The plain would have been able to supply food for a little over half that number and the rest would have been fed using imported grain. The number of citizens that Megara could have supported was dwarfed by the other states around it: Corinth, Boeotia, Athens. It would have made Megara one of the smallest city-states of Greece. The only natural resources from the area were the deposits of salt found on its south coast.

Megara may have been under Athens' control in the Bronze Age. Homer listed them together in his catalogue of ships. But in the Geometric period it was independent. Megara was well known for its numerous colonies that included Chalcedon and Byzantium. The city hotly contested the island of Salamis with Athens and in c 570 BC lost it to the tyrants of Athens. About the same time Perachora was lost to Corinth. The Megarians fought at Plataea, sending 3000 troops, and it was at Megara that the Persians stopped, unable to continue past the Isthmus.

Before the Peloponnesian War, Megara sided with Athens and the Athenians built long walls from the town down to the port of Nisaea. But they soon turned on the Athenians and in 432 Pericles' famous Megarian Decree helped to cause the war by keeping all Megarians from Attic markets and harbors. During the war, the Athenians invaded Megara's lands often and even blockaded the city from the sea. Though the Athenians managed to take the port of Nisaea, they never managed to break into the city itself. In the fourth century, Megara was in control of the port of Aigosthena, well north of the city.

Throughout Antiquity, Megara was not thought very highly of. Pausanias said that they were the only Greek people whom even the emperor Hadrian could not make thrive. Strabo said that the soil was very sterile. Theophrastus said the land around it was poor. Isocrates even said that the Megarians "farmed rocks." But the city retained its fortifications until the 5th C AD.

Megara was also the birthplace of both Theognis the elegiac poet and Eukleides the sophist.

Megaris, Megara. c. 307-243 BC.
Obverse; Prow left, surmounted by tripod on forecastle, trident in field above. Reverse; MEΓ between two dolphins swimming clockwise. Bronze. Diameter: 16 mm. Weight: 2.79 gr.
Reference: SNG Cop 480, S-2590.

Indeed. I was really pleased to see how much detail there actually was on the coin when it arrived.

I hadn't seen this combination of young Herakles and a lion on a coin from Lysimachos/Lysimacheia before. ACSearch turned up two specimens, but the engraver may have been having a bad day with this coin as the ΛY of ΛY ΣIMA is retrograde.

Another oddity for the menagerie.

Lysimachos, Thrace. circa 309-281BC
Obverse; Head of young Herakles right, clad in lion's skin. Reverse; Forepart of a lion lying right, left foreleg raised. Reverse legend; YΛ (ΛY retrograde) / ΣIM(A) above and below forepart. Bronze. Diameter: 13 mm. Weight: 1.78 gr.
Reference: Coryssa ID 1747043
From ACSearch; "Unpublished in the standard references; for obv., cf. HGC 3.2, 1761; for rev., cf. HGC 3.2, 1760"

Link to the two coins on ACSearch. https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...=usd&order=0
Coins 2 and 3 are the same coin.

Great coin, lots of detail on that well preserved reverse.

Thanks @erafjel and @jbuck.


It is the best representation of Neptune/Poseidon in the collection so far.