Some notes on river gods

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

I once had a time when I was hunting for coins with river gods. The following coins originate from this time.

1st Coin:
Moesia inferior, Nikopolis ad Istrum, Septimius Severus, AD 193-211
AE 26, 9.27g, 26.36mm, 0°
struck under governor Aurelius Gallus
obv. AV-T Λ CEΠT - CEVHP ΠEP
laureate head r.
rev. VΠ AVP ΓAΛΛOV.NIKOΠOΛIT ΠPOC IC
Bearded river god (Istros), in hip dress, leaning l., holding in raised r. hand big
water plant and resting with l. arm on vase, from which water flows l.
ref. a) not in AMNG
cf. AMNG I/1, 1313 (for the type only)
b) Varbanov (engl.) 2663a
c) Hristova/Hoeft/Jekov (2018) No. 8.14.32.20 (plate coin)
about VF, dark green patina


2nd Coin:
Thrace, Philippopolis, Commodus, AD 177-192
AE 32, 17.89g, 31.88mm, 345°
struck under governor Caecilius Servilianus
obv. AV KAI M AV Λ KOMOΔOC
Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r.
rev. HΓE KAI CEPOVEIΛIANOV ΦIΛIΠΠ / OΠOΛEIT / ΩN
Bearded river god (Hebron), in hip dress, leaning l. on rocks(?), holding
water plant in l. hand and resting with l. arm on overturned vase from which
water flows l. ; the lowered l. hand rests on prow of ship; tree stg. behind with
several twigs and fruits
ref. Varbanov 943
Extremely rare, about VF, wonderful rev.


Pat Lawrence: That is one beautiful Philippopolis, queen of mints issuing large river-gods, and this is one of its bests.

3rd Coin:
Sicily, Gela, c.420-415 BC
AE 18 (tetras), 4.81g, 17.57mm, 210°
obv. Bull with lowered head, l.
above GELAS, beneath three pellets (for 3 onkiai = tetras)
rev. Head of river god Gela, diademed and with horns on forehead, r.
ref. SNG Copenhagen 283/5
about VF
Pedigree:
ex Baldwin's 1896, lot 202
ex coll. William C.Boyd (1840-1926)


In early times river gods are depicted horned because they were equated to bulls due to their wild character. Homer writes how the river Skamandros was roaring like a bull when he has been wounded. In Greece and Italy there was a famous cult of river gods. This cult was not unknown in ancient times. Especially among the indogermanic peoples the worshipping of flowing water was wide spread. It is known from the Indians, the Persians, the Thracians and the Celts. From the Germans it is not sure. The designation as 'river gods' was not known in ancient times. Homer and Hesiod were talking of 'ποταμοι' (Greek = rivers). Wether they have differentiated between the rivers itself and river gods (who lived at the bottom of the rivers or in caves) is not clear!

Referring to Homer all rivers originated from Okeanos. Hesiod calls the rivers children of Okeanos and Thetis. But Skamandros is known as son of Zeus. They are immortal and participate on meetings of the gods. They are seen with many children and as ancestors of aristocratic families.

Characteristic for their cult was the consecration of hair, perhaps the substitute of human sacrifice. Peleus vows the river Spercheios a ringlet of Achill if his son will come home safe. Elsewise they got the usual offerings, bulls and sheep. There were regular sacrificing e.g. in Messenia, one was sacrificing before crossing a river, so Xerxes before before crossing the Strymon or Lucullus at the Euphrat. The river gods had priests too, temples and altars.

Already Homer knows the river gods as human-shaped. When in his Ilias (lib. 22, 237) Skamandros yells like a bull then this is a reminiscence of older beliefs. The most early depiction of a river god, Acheloos, is the mix of a bull and a human being. The later typus had only small horns. In Graeca Magna and in Sicily they appear as youthful men on coins of the 5th century BC. The well known type as leaning river god as on these two coins could be from the same century if one suggest Pausanias is right with his description of the figures at the Easter pedement of the Zeus temple of Olympia as Alpheios and Kladeios. But this today is seen as not correct. So this typus seems to be more probably hellenistic. The suggestion that the Centaurs are originally river gods is shortend to Nessos only.

There are known about one hundred names of river gods, mostly from Greece, from Asia Minor, Sicily and Italy. But this list is not complete. In the Greek area the most famous are Acheloos and Alpheios. Italian river gods with supra-regional cult in the Roman-Italian area were Clitumnus and Tiber (as Tiberinus pater too). He also was seen as master and father of all other rivers and called by prayer. He had a sanctuary too. In the old almanac of ceremonies he was substituted by Volturnus.

Excursion: For the deeper understanding of the ancient conception of river and other gods:
The river gods depicted on coins are not personifications in our sense. Rivers have not been gods! They have been the expression of something divine behind the things. And that is something very different! In rivers, wells, trees or mountains turned up the divine. In this sense the depicted river god was the visible expression of this divine behind the things. In different shapes, depending on the kind of the depicted river. It is understandable that they were depicted anthropomorphic, bedded like a tired wanderer (the feet pointing to the mouth of the river!). Nevertheless it was the matter of a transcendental experience, valid for wells, trees, mountains and other deities too.

This has been heavily misunderstood by the Christian monks who cut the sacred trees, e.g. Bonifatius the Donar Oak, and claimed the gods to resist it. The reminiscence on Christ hanging on the cross should have disabuse them: He too was challenged by the Romans to climb down if he really was God.

We all have remains of this understanding of nature when we say about a river: He is hopping and jumping, is streaming majestically or is restricted and violated by channels. May be the actual situation of our nature could be more hopeful if we would bethink ourself of this buried view!

I thank Mr. Reinhart Falter, with whom I have discussed for hours. He is responsible for the renaturation of the river Isar in Munich. His big collection of coins with river gods he has sold some years before on auctions.

The attached pics show the two figures from the East pediment of the Zeus temple in Olympia which were describend already by Pausanias. The left one is Alpheios (from AERIA), the right one Kladeos (from the Photo Collection of the University of Göttingen).


Sources:
(1) Der kleine Pauly
(2) Reinhart Falter, Fluß- und Berggötter in der Spätantike, Cadmus 1999
(3) Sylvia Klement, Gelagerte Flußgötter, Böhlau 1993
(4) www.aeria.phil.uni-erlangen.de
(5) http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~aegypt/ow/zeus.htm

Best regards

 

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Hadrian (117-138 A.D.)

Alexandria

Year 127-128

Type: AE Drachm, 32mm 24.42 grams

Obverse: AVT KAI TPAI AAPIA CEB, Laureate draped and cuirassed bust right

Reverse: LDW (delta) EK in exergue, Nilos reclining left upon a crocodile, holding cornucopia and reed, Genius emerging from the cornucopia and pointing at letters IS in upper field

Reference: Milne 1269

 

Wow, both of those provincials are incredible, Jochen. I especially love the composition of the Philippopolis's reverse.

I have to say, though, that one of my favorite river god reverses appears, not on a provincial, but a LRB struck at Constantinople.


HANNIBALLIANUS
AE4. 1.48g, 16mm. Constantinople mint, AD 336-337. RIC VII 147; LRBC 1034, Cohen 2. O: FL HANNIBALLIANO REGI, bare-headed, draped, cuirassed bust right. R: SE-CVRITAS PVBLICA, river god Euphrates seated right on ground, holding sceptre, overturned urn at his side, from which waters flow, reed in background; CONSS in exergue.

Rome’s Oceanus:


HADRIAN
AR Denarius. 2.98g, 19.1mm. Rome mint, AD 119-125. RIC 75a. O: IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG, laureate bust right. R: P M TR P COS III, Oceanus reclining left on a dolphin, crab claw horns on his head, holding an anchor in his right hand.
Ex E.E. Clain-Stefanelli Collection

And here's my obligatory MFB since Acheloos was mentioned...


CAMPANIA, Neapolis
AR Didrachm. 6.87g, 19.7mm. CAMPANIA, Neapolis, circa 290-270 BC. cf. SNG France 917; cf. Sambon 490. O: Head of nymph Parthenope left, hair bound with band, wearing earring and necklace; uncertain symbol behind (Helle on a ram, trophy, shield?). R: Man-faced bull standing right, head facing; above, Nike flying right, crowing bull; NEOΠOΛITΩN in exergue.
Ex Cardinal Joachim Meisner Collection, acquired from Friedrich Redder, Leipzig

 

Beautifull coins, excellent write up! Jochen I only have one German coin with "River Gods" theme.
Baden Durlach
AV Dukat 1807 MS-65
Karl Friedrich GrossHerzog Zu Baden Durlach
Reverse shows "Rhein River God"

 

@zumbly Your coin from Neapolis is unbelievable!

@panzerman Your coin from Baden-Durlach is something special: The gold of this coin is washed from river sand of the Rhine. And that is rare.

Jochen

 

There’s actually persuasive evidence that the original form of the book 21 passage lacked Okeanos thereby making Acheloios the source of all water. Both Zenodotus and Megakleides advocate this earlier version, and it is consistent with P.Derveni and P.Oxy., and many other classical authors who equate Acheloios with water. Okeanos was probably a later interpolation.

 

Thanks Jochen, I also have a few Rhinegold Dukaten from Bayern. I do not think there ever was a "gold rush" on the Rhine River. Here is a common "Rheingold Dukat" from Bayern MS-62

 

Today there are several travel companies in Germany that offer holidays including gold panning in rivers. The large rivers Rhine and Elbe as well as the Bavarian rivers Isar and Inn are gold leading. But also smaller rivers like Eder, Wietze, Göltsch, Striegis, Schwarza, Aller and Grümpen should be promising. Unfortunately I don't know all of the last ones.

This type of holiday seems to be becoming more and more popular. But you don't get rich.

 

But you get a rich experience in fine cuisine/ historical towns, beautifull scenary Germany is in a league of its own, when it come to numismatics. Twenty percent of World coinage was struck by German States in gold, silver, most early dated ones also. But my favorites are the "Cityview" show Dukaten from Nurnberg/ Regensberg/ Hamburg. But the Sachsen coinage is not too shabby either....

 

Great write up and read Jochen, thank you for that. I dont have a provincial coin like yours, they look really nice. I do have a denarius of Hadrian, Nilus. Posted it before in another thread, but I like it so here it is again.

 

Nice write-up Jochen, and some great riverine coins. I have Rhine (horned) on an issue of Postumus:



Gallic Empire Antoninianus
Postumus (260 A.D.)
Trier Mint, 1st Emis., 2nd Ph.
IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate, draped & cuirassed right / SALVS PROVINCIARVM, river god Rhine, horns on head, reclining left, elbow on urn,
hand on prow, holding anchor.
RIC 87; RSC 355; Sear 10990.
(2.78 grams / 24 x 21 mm)

 

Great info Jochen , many thanks.

more river coins:

 

There are only a few coins in my collection depicting river gods. This is my favorite:


Postumus, AD 260-269.
Roman billon antoninianus, 2.54 g, 22.4 mm, 12 h.
Trier (some attribute to Cologne), 1st emission, 2nd phase, AD 260-261.
Obv: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: SALVS PROVINCIARVM, river god Rhinus, bearded and horned, reclining left, resting right hand on boat and holding anchor in left, left arm resting on urn.
Refs: RIC 87; RSC 355b; Mairat 1-5; RCV 10991; AGK 88c; De Witte 290; Hunter p. lxxxviii.

The Rhine River is personified as having horns because the river itself was known by the Latin epithet bicornis (two-horned) in antiquity because the Rhine empties itself into the North Sea via two channels.

 

Dear Andres2,

Thank you for posting your coins. Only the interpretation of the opposing heads on the coins from Istros is not finally clarified until today. According to Gabriel Talmatchi a Romanian numismatist there is more than one explanation related to this coin's design:

(1) Istros's (Danube) two branches, one to Adriatic Sea and one to Black Sea
Vossius, Observationes ad pomponum Mela de situ orbis, 1658, p. 38; H. Hommel, Das Doppelgesicht auf den Münzen von Istros, in Beiträge zur alten Geschichte und deren Nachleben, în Festschrift für Franz Altheim zum 6. 10. 1968, Berlin 1, 1969, p. 261-272.

(2) Dioscures
J. Eckhel, Doctrina numorum veterum, II, Vindobona, 1792, p. 14-15; M. Golescu, Tot monetele de la Histria, în BSNR, 27-28, 1933-1934, 81-82, p. 94-96.

(3) Apollo - Helios
B. Head, Historia Nummorum, A manual of greek Numsimatics, II, London, 1963, p. 274.

(4) Apollo
G. Severeanu, Despre drahma istriană, în BSNR, 15, 1920, p. 22.

(5) Wind gods from Istros
B. Pick, Die antiken Münzen Nord-griechelands (AMNG), I. Die antiken Münzen von Dacien und Moesien, Berlin 1898, p. 181.

(6) Two opposite gods (Black Sea and Danube)
R. Netzhammer, Ceva nou despre Istros, în Revista Catolică, 1, 1912, 3, p. 355-356; C. Moisil, Cele mai vechi monete din Istros, in BSNR, 16, 1921, 40, p. 108-112.

(7) Opposite flows from the Danube's Delta
L. Ruzicka, Inedita aus Moesia Inferior, în NZ, Wien, 1917, p. 103; idem, Despre cele mai vechi monede din Istros, in CNA, 4, 1923, 1, p. 2-4.

(8) Two Getic slaves
T. V. Blavatskaya, Zapadnopontiskye goroda v VII-I vekakh ery., Moscow, 1952, p. 202, 213.

(9) Two Histrian slaves
J. Hind, The trade in getic slaves and the silver coins of Istria, în Actes du Symposium International, 7-12 octobre 1991, Sozopol, p. 154.

(10) Istros itself (young)
J. Hind, Istrian faces and the river Danube, în NC, 7, 1970, 10, p. 7-17.

(11) Cabiri
V. P. Alexeev, Semantika aversnogo tipa serebrjanyh istrijskih monet V-IV vv. do n. e., in Numizmatika Antičnogo Pričernomorija, Kiev, 1982, p. 106.http://arheologie.ulbsibiu.ro/publicatii/bibliotheca/xxi/03.htm

One should consider that the representation of these two opposing heads no longer appears in the imperial period, which does not apply to the reverse. According to Pick, this suggests that these two heads represent something that no longer existed in the imperial period.

I have attached my coin, AMNG I/1 421:


Best regards

 

If you are interested in river gods on coins, you will want this sale catalog:

Helios 3 (2009, April 29-30) 782 ancients among 1113. 7 Celtic, 1 RR imit, 60 G, 10 RR, 204 RI, 17 Byz, 2 Gepids, and an amazing collection of 482 Roman and Roman provincials with river gods.
An amazing collection of river gods on Roman and Roman provincial coins (482)

I have an educational web site that lists the contents of many sale catalogs, some of which are the best references for a particular theme.

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/Themes.html