Dear Friends of ancient mythology! I want to present here a coin whose mythological relations goes to the myths of the Atreids. 1st Coin: Macedonia, Amphipolis, Tiberius, AD 14-37 AE 21, 8.05g, 22.49mm, 180° Obv.: TI KAIΣAP ΣE - BAΣTOΣ (beginning lower right, to read upwards) Bare head r. Rev.: AMΦIΠOΛITΩN (lower l. and r.) Artemis Tauropolos in long clothes, sitting frontal and looking r., abdomen slightly turned r., on a bull, leaping r. with head turned frontal, raising with both hands a corner of her garment above the head so that it is inflated arched. (Description by Gaebler, AMNG III!) Ref.: AMNG III, 73 (1 ex., Berlin); BMC 80; SNG ANS 169; RPC 1632; SGI 259 Very rare, about VF, nice green patina, bold portrait Pedigree: ex CNG, 2006 ex Lanz Auction 125, Lot 651, 2005 2nd Coin: Macedonia, Amphipolis, Domitian, AD 81-96 AE 20 5.72g, 20.44mm, 330° Obv.: AVT KAICAP - ΔOMITIANOC Laureate head r. Rev.: AMΦIΠ - OΛITΩN Artemis Tauropolos, in long garment and with kalathos, stg. frontal, head l., holding in r. hand long torch and in lowered l. hand branch; r. beside her a great decorated round-shield set on ground. Ref.: AMNG III, 77; BMC 94; SNG Copenhagen 100; SNG ANS 178 F+/about VF, dark green patina Amphipolis was home to an imperial cult, worshipping the living emperor, and to a cult dedicated to Artemis Tauropolos. So even if she is not named it should be Artemis Tauropolos on the coins. There is no relation to Europa and the bull. The rev. of the 2nd coin likely depicts a local statue of Artemis Tauropolos. Now I have found a coin on that she is named TAVROPOLOS. But without any reference. Possibly unpublished. The epitheton 'Tauropolos' comes from Euripides. Its meaning is not definitely clarified but it is general consensus that Artemis Tauropolos is identical to the Taurian Artemis, called Scythian Diana too. Tauria, land of the Tauri, is the todays Crimean peninsula, the ancient Taurian Chersonessos. How the Taurian Artemis came from the Crimean peninsula to Greece? This is told by Euripides in his famous tragedies 'Iphigenia in Aulis' and 'Iphigenia in Tauris'. Tauropolos is variously interpreted as "worshipped at Tauris", "pulled by a yoke of bulls", or "hunting bull goddess". A statue of Artemis Tauropolos in her temple at Brauron in Attica was supposed to have been brought from the Taurians by Iphigenia. Mythology: Iphigenia was the daughter of the Mycenian king Agamemnon and his wife Klytaimnestra. When the Greek armada was laying in the harbour of Aulis and was hindered by Artemis to sail, because Agamemnon has killed a hind of Artemis, the Greek ask Kalchas, the great seer, what to do. He gave order to the Greek to sacrify Iphigenia on an altar to mitigate the rage of Artemis. When Agamemnon enforcedly agreed Odysseus and Diomedes took Iphigenia to Aulis by the false pretences to betrouth her to Achilleus. In the very last moment Artemis exchanged her with a hind and abducted her to Tauria making Iphigenia to her priestress. One of her duties was to sacrify all strangers which were stranding at the coasts of the Taurian Chersonessos. Once she recognized between them her brother Orestes accompanied by Pylades who were ordered by the oracle of Delphi to bring the cult-statue of Artemis from Tauria to Greece. Iphigenia enabled them to get the statue and fled with them back to Greece. Background: The legends of the Taurian Artemis are mystical, and her worship was orgiastic and connected, at least in early times, with human sacrifices. According to the Greek legend there was in Tauris a goddess, whom the Greeks for some reason identified with their own Artemis. and to whom all strangers that were thrown on the coast of Tauris, were sacrificed (Eurip. Iph. Taur. 36). Iphigeneia and Orestes brought her image from thence, and landed at Brauron in Attica, whence the goddess derived the name of Brauronia (Paus. i. 23.9, 33.1, iii. 16, in fin.). The Brauronian Artemis was worshipped at Athens and Sparta, and in the latter place the boys were scourged at her altar in such a manner that it became sprinkled with their blood. This cruel ceremony was believed to have been introduced by Lycurgus, instead of the human sacrifices which had until then been offered to her (Dict. of Ant. s. v. Brauronia and Diamastigosis). Her name at Sparta was Orthia, with reference to the phallus, or because her statue stood erect. According to another tradition, Orestes and Iphigeneia concealed the image of the Taurian goddess in a bundle of brushwood, and carried it to Aricia in Latium.Iphigeneia, who was at first to have been sacrificed to Artemis, and then became her priestess, was afterwards identified with the goddess (Herod. iv. 103; Paus. i. 43.1), who was worshipped in some parts of Greece, as at Hermione, under the name of Iphigeneia (Paus. ii. 35.1). Some traditions stated, that Artemis made Iphigeneia immortal, in the character of Hecate, the goddess of the moon. A kindred divinity, if not the same as the Taurian Artemis, is Artemis tauropolos, whose worship was connected with bloody sacrifices, and who produced madness in the minds of men, at least the chorus in the Ajax of Sophocles, describes the madness of Ajax as the work of this divinity. In the legends about the Taurian Artemis, it seems that separate local traditions of Greece are mixed up with the legends of some Asiatic divinity, whose symbol in the heaven was the moon, and on the earth the cow. Temples of the Artemis Tauropolos are found besides Brauron in the Cappadocian Kommana, on the Islands of Ikarion and Samos and in Amphipolis. The pic shows the temple of Artemis Tauropolos at Artemide in Attica. I have added a pic of the fresco from Pompeji from the 1st century AD. The most famous picture was a painting of Timanthes. Sadly it was lost. We know its description by Pliny the Elder. It is assumed that this fresco from Pompeji shows a reflex of the lost painting. We see the half-clothed Iphigenia dragged by Odysseus and Diomedes to the altar, at the right side the seer Kalchas is standing, at the left side Agamemnon veiled his head. Standing on the column left we see Artemis with two stags, coming to save Iphigenia. Sources: (1) Der kleine Pauly (2) William Smith, A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (3) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon (4) Irene Aghion/Claire Barbillon/Francois Lissarrague, Reclams Lexikon der antiken Götter und Heroen in der Kunst Best regards
Another wonderful research Jochen! THANKS. Strangely, I have it in my old brain that Iphigenia was indeed sacrificed to allow Agamemnon to launch his ships (which were blocked by severe weather) for Troy. She was later resurrected by some goddess. Athena? Oh well. Getting old.
Dear Pete! Thank you for your post. Iphigenia was rescued twice: The first rescue of Iphigenia took place in Aulis, when Agamemnon wanted to sacrifice her to reconcile Artemis. She was kidnapped by Artemis, who left a hind on the altar. The second rescue took place much later, when Pylades and Orestes in Tauris wanted to kidnap the cult image of Artemis and their sister Iphigenia to Attica and were discovered by King Thoas. There it was Athena who brought about a happy end. Best regards Jochen
