FROM ATHENA TO ROMA

The Greek classical numismatic representation of Athena shows her wearing a traditional Corinthian helmet, except for the Athenian "owl" coinage where she wears a close-fitting helmet, probably identical to that worn by the Athena statue erected in the Parthenon.
The Romans adopted the Greek goddess, calling her "ROMA". She is represented on Republican denarii wearing a Roman style helmet to distinguish her from the Greek model. Here are the three representatons

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I've not read (or sought to read, yet) how certain Greek gods became adapted to Roman culture, but I thought Greek Athena became Roman Minerva rather than Roma. I guess there's no reason Athena couldn't have been co-opted into both entities.

Can you recommend some articles about the subject?

 

Two small bronzes from Pautalia in Thrace, each of Faustina Junior.

Athena (she's holding an owl):



Roma (holding a Victoriola):

 

Why is the second coin's reverse figure deemed Roma rather than Athena?

 

I don't agree with the OP that Athena = Roma. Athena was the equivalent of the Roman goddess Minerva. The City Goddess Roma shares many representational attributes with Athena and Minerva, which perhaps leads to confusion. All are typically depicted wearing helmets, with Athena/Minerva typically depicted in a Corinthian helmet. Certainly from 212 BC, when Roma is prominent on Rome's new denarius coinage, Roma is depicted in a Roman helmet of varying form, but not a Corinthian helmet. There is some talk among Roman Republican experts whether certain earlier Roman coin depictions of a Corinthian-helmeted goddess may be early representations of Roma, rather than Minerva.

This is often guesswork, based on common representational attributes, as the gods and goddesses are often not named on the coinage.

 

@TIF
I highly recommend Greece and Rome An integrated history. It covers a lot more than just adoption of gods.

 

That looks great! Thanks for the recommendation

 

That does look interesting. Lectures. Could be good treadmill material!

 

I am afraid,an article still needs to be written on the subject !

 

Thank you for your interesting comment.

 

I wish I could agree with the Owl=Minerva, Victoriola=Roma theory but I'll say it usually works but not always. Roma never has an owl as far as I have seen but Minerva comes both ways as shown on the MINER VICT first below.


MINER VICTR


Neither MINERVI CTRIC


ROMAE AE(TERNA)


Of course, using Emesa mint Septimius as evidence for how the Romans did things is wholly ridiculous. After all they made the coin below with POMA which made a lot more sense to the Greek speakers at the mint.


I would love to see an example of a coin marked Roma with the owl if anyone has one.

 

...so one could speculate that Minerva is possibly "Bi"? (comedians out of work everywhere and here i am trying to be funny)

 

I have a couple of Emesa - POMA (two different obverse dies, same reverse die) the second of which arrived this week.




Alexandrian ROMA also conform to the Victory based reverse

 

Interesting, eh?

Here is a link on Roma ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_(mythology)#Roma_in_the_Greek_world

Ummm, but I agree with most of the others that Athena => Minerva

... below is a quick-n-dirty table (I'm sure most people have seen this before)



Here is a link to more "similar" comparisons

https://www.oneonta.edu/faculty/farberas/arth/ARTH209/gods_greek_roman.html