Dear Friends of history! I mentioned that I am mapping wild plants for the Natural History Museum in Stuttgart. That gave me the idea for this riddle. Here I have 2 photos from my collections and would have liked to know what connects these two pictures. So I am looking for the tertium comparationis. Have fun solving Jochen
I’m going to guess that the plant in the picture is a native plant of Greece and the Alexander the Great coin is also from Greece. Maybe this is too broad but it’s worth a shot
the plant is a Lysimachia Vulgaris , the coin is a tetradrachma of Lysimachos , king of Thrace ,diadoch,former general & bodyguard of Alexander the great
I used plantnet to ID the plant image: https://identify.plantnet.org/ It's most confident guess is Cornus Mas, aka Cornelian cherry (at an early flowering stage). WikiPedia has this to say about it: Cornus mas was used from the seventh century BC onward by Greek craftsmen to construct spears, javelins and bows, the craftsmen considering it far superior to any other wood.[5] The wood's association with weaponry was so well known that the Greek name for it was used as a synonym for "spear" in poetry during the fourth and third centuries BC.[5] But other than the loose Greek connection, I don't see any connection to the coin.
Hmmm the sarissa was made from κρανιά which is this tree but lysimachos was king of Thrace not Macedonia on the other hand the coin depicts Alexander
If the riddle relates to Alexander the great and not lysimachos, then the gordian knot was made from this tree Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ ὡς ἐς Γόρδιον παρῆλθε, πόθος λαμβάνει αὐτὸν τὴν ἅμαξαν ἰδεῖν τὴν Γορδίου καὶ τοῦ ζυγοῦ τῆς ἁμάξης τὸν δεσμόν. Πρὸς δὲ δὴ ἄλλοις καὶ τόδε περὶ τῆς ἁμάξης ἐμυθεύετο, ὅστις λύσειε τοῦ ζυγοῦ τῆς ἁμάξης τὸν δεσμόν, τοῦτον χρῆναι ἄρξαι τῆς Ἀσίας. Ἦν δὲ ὁ δεσμὸς ἐκ φλοιοῦ κρανίας καὶ τούτου οὔτε τέλος οὔτε ἀρχὴ ἐφαίνετο. Ἀλέξανδρος δὲ ὡς ἀπόρως μὲν εἶχεν ἐξευρεῖν λύσιν τοῦ δεσμοῦ, ἄλυτον δὲ περιιδεῖν οὐκ ἤθελε, μή τινα καὶ τοῦτο ἐς τοὺς πολλοὺς κίνησιν ἐργάσηται, παίσας τῷ ξίφει διέκοψε τὸν δεσμὸν καὶ λελύσθαι ἔφη. Ἀπηλλάγη δ’ οὖν ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμάξης αὐτός τε καὶ οἱ ἀμφ᾿ αὐτὸν ὡς τοῦ λογίου τοῦ ἐπὶ τῇ λύσει τοῦ δεσμοῦ ξυμβεβηκότος. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τῆς νυκτὸς ἐκείνης βρονταί τε καὶ σέλας ἐξ οὐρανοῦ ἐπεσήμηναν· καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις ἔθυε τῇ ὑστεραίᾳ Ἀλέξανδρος τοῖς φήνασι θεοῖς τά τε σημεῖα καὶ τοῦ δεσμοῦ τὴν λύσιν.
The name of the plant, Cornus Mas, is based on the Latin word "cornu" meaning horn, based on the hardness and density of the wood (making it good for weapon making). So, is the Latin word "cornu" (horn) the common factor - both the basis of the name of the plant, and a reference to Zeus Amun's horns? Incidently the hippocampal region of the brain, having the same curved shape as ram's horns, is known as the "Cornu Ammonis" (Amun's horn).
You were close to the solution. (1) The coin shows a life-like portrait of Alexander III the Great. (2) The plant is the Cornelian cherry (Cornus mus). History: Philip II developed the tactics of the Macedonian phalanx, which Alexander III the Great then used to conquer the Persian Empire. His soldiers, the Phalangites, were equipped with a 6m(!) long lance (Sarissa). The lance was made of the wood of Cornelian cherry, which is related to the dogwood and is known to be extremely hard. Thank you for participating Jochen