Featured Apollo Smintheus

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

As motto on top of my book "Münzen und antike Mythologie" I have chosen the following words of Gottfried Benn ('Roman des Phänotyps'):

"But millenia are living in our souls,
Lost, silents, dust: Kain, Zenobia,
The Atreids sway their Thyrsos rods from afar."

And as first coin in my book I have chosen Apollo Smintheus. This has sentimental reasons: I recall very well how we have begun to read Homer's Ilias in the school.
The first coin I want to present is a coin of Commodus. It is an AE28 from Alexandreia. The legends are in Latin because this city was a Roman colony.

1st Coin:
Commodus, AD 180-192
AE 28, 7.81g, 27.74mm, 45°
obv. AVT CAI(sic!) M AV COM - MODO AVG BA
Laureate head r
rev. COL AVG - TROAD
Statue of Apollo Smintheus, in himation, quiver over r. shoulder, stg. facing on small cippus, holding bow in l. hand and and sacrificing from patera in r. hand over flaming tripod.
Ref.: not in Bellinger (cf. A193); not in Aulock, Copenhagen, Righetti, BMC, Lindgren, RPC IV online.
Rare, VF/EF, brown-green patina


The second coin is from Maximinus:

2nd Coin:
Maximinus, AD 235-238
AE 24, 8.81g, 23.67mm, 225°
obv. IMP MAXI - MINVS PIVS AV
Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r.
rev. COL AVG - TRO
Apollo Smintheus, quiver over l. shoulder stg. r., holding his bow in raised l.
hand and sacrificing with r. hand out of patera over tripod; behind him a
cypress.
ref. Bellinger A358 (type 3)
Rare, VF, green-brown patina, slightly overall roughness (as often)


Note:
The cypress behind the statue of Apollo Smintheus is a known iconographical indication that the sanctuary of Smintheus has been stood in a cypress grove.

Interestingly the worshipping of Apollo Smintheus extends only to Asia Minor and not the Greek mainland. Especially Alexandreia/Troas was the center of this cult. This is as generally known one of the strongest arguments for the thesis that the origin of the Apollo cult was Asia minor. Here we have the mythological explanation:

Mythology:
After the fall of Troy the Greeks start to spread to the East. They settled on the Aegaen islands and the western coast of Asia Minor. The worshipping of Apollo in this region have had a curious origin. When the old Teukri under their king Teucer came from Crete to the coast of Asia Minor, the oracle have said them to stay there where they could see their enemies creeping out of the ground. When they came to Hamaxitos, a city in this region, the mice creeping out of the ground gnaw at their shields in the night. So they saw the oracle of the god fulfilled, settled down and built up a statue of Apollo and at his feet laying a mouse, which in the Aeolian dialect was called Smintha. (Ovid Met. II, 5685)

There are known two different versions of Apollo Smintheus depictions:
(1) A cult statue where he stands frontal sometimes holding a mouse in his hand. This version is characteristic of Alexandreia/Troas.
(2) A cult statue where Apollo is standing l. and has sometimes a mouse under his foot. In Chryse there was a statue made by Scopas, showing exactly this position, known only by descriptions, e.g. Strabo. This statue too could be seen on coins.

Smintheus:
The meaning of the epitheton 'Smintheus' is interpreted in different ways:

(1) The origin of the name is the city of Sminthe in Troas, where Apollo was worshipped already in pre-hellenic times. So Apollo Smintheus means "Apollo from Sminthe".
(2) In the Aeolian dialect 'smintha' means 'mouse'. So Apollo Smintheus means "Apollo the mice-god". The mouse in ancient times was a symbol of prophetic power because it was thought mice were inspired by the exhailing coming out of the gound. That would match the prophetic power of Apollo.
(3) "Apollo the mice-killer". The Greek already had recognized the mice as vermin and
worshipped Apollo as protector against mice.

I for myself tend to #2. The last I think is too rationalistic. I remember the explanation of my venerated Greek teacher that the sm-sound of Smintheus has a flattering connotation and must have pleased the god.

Apollo Smintheus at Homer:
The first mention of Apollo Smintheus is found in Homer's Ilias I, 39. The beginning of the Ilias describes how Apollo strikes the Greeks with a plague because Agamemnon has raped Chrysis, the daughter of Apollo's priest Chryses, and so has humiliated his priest.

The old man, afraid, obeyed his words, walked off in silence,
along the shore by the tumbling, crashing surf.
Some distance off, he prayed to Lord Apollo,
Leto's fair-haired child:
"God with the silver bow,
protector of Chryse, sacred Cilla, 40
mighty lord of Tenedos, Sminthean Apollo,
hear my prayer: If I've ever pleased you
with a holy shrine, or burned bones for you— [40]
bulls and goats well wrapped in fat—
grant me my prayer. Force the Danaans
to pay full price for my tears with your arrows."
So Chryses prayed. Phoebus Apollo heard him.
He came down from Olympus top enraged,
carrying on his shoulders bow and covered quiver,
his arrows rattling in anger against his arm. 50
So the god swooped down, descending like the night.
He sat some distance from the ships, shot off an arrow—
the silver bow reverberating ominously.
First, the god massacred mules and swift dogs, [50]
then loosed sharp arrows in among the troops themselves.
Thick fires burned the corpses ceaselessly.
(Translation by Ian Johnston, http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/homer/iliad1.htm )

To say the Greeks have recognized the mice already as transmitters of plagues, as I have read too, I would refuse because it is the rat flea, which is transferring plague, and so the bad guy is the rat and not the mouse.

I have added a pic of the ruins of Alexandreia after a coloured copper engraving of Heinrich Hugo Cöntgen (1727-1792) made after an engraving of Giovanni Battista Borra (1712-1788) from my collection.:


Sources:
(1) Homer, Ilias
(2) Ovid, Metamorphosen

Literature:
(1) Der Kleine Pauly
(2) My article about Apollo Smintheus and the herdsman Orodes

Online Sources:
(1) www.varchive.org7schorr/bronze.htn

Best regards

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Great post as always @Jochen ! My photo is terrible... but I have this cool Caracalla
coin showing the Temple of Apollo Smintheus, containing the sculpture shown on your coins above. It's interesting that the sculpture takes the place of where the 2nd (or maybe 3rd from the left) column would be.

I'll see if I can get a better photo this weekend and maybe a better look at the statue in the temple. Great coins!


Caracalla
Roman Provincial
Troas. Alexandreia
M AVR ANTONI-NVS PIVS AVG; laureate and draped bust right
COL AV-G TROAD; perspective view of tetrastyle temple of Apollo Smintheus, containing statue of Apollo Smintheus right, holding patera and bow.
Bellinger, Troy A 273 var. (obverse legend).

 

Interesting story about the role of the mice in ancient times.

Here's my Alexander the great bronze with a mouse on the reverse:

 

Apollo Smintheus! Huh. Just got an mis-described AE from eBay and while digging into it, found the reverse shows Apollo Smintheus - Apollo the Mouse Killer. Who says Greek mythology lacks a sense of humor?

While researching it, I came across this great thread, and learned a lot (thanks, Jochen1).

Here is my new one - Apollo with a very tiny bow, no doubt to shoot tiny arrows at the mice of Troas. Apollo must've been a good shot:



The bow:


Caracalla Æ 23
Alexandria, Troas
(c. 214-215 A.D.)
[IMP] M AVR ANTONINVS PI[VS?], laureate, draped and cuirassed bust r. / COL ALEX AVG, statue of Apollo Smintheus standing right on plinth, holding patera & bow; lighted tripod-altar right.
(8.67 grams / 23 x 22 mm )

Attribution Note:
Cf. Bellinger A293;
Cf. SNG Cop 136;
Cf. SNG von Aulock 1472.

From Agora Auction No. 73,
Lot 138 March 27, 2018

 

I, too, first learned of Apollo Smintheus while learning the Iliad in Greek in college. I have discussed the relevant passage in the Iliad in this thread. I encourage @Marsyas Mike to take a look at it.

I have only one coin of Smintheus. It's not exactly FDC.


Time of Valerian I to Gallienus, AD 253-268.
Roman provincial Æ 23 mm, 5.60 g, 6 h.
Troas, Alexandria Troas, AD 253-268.
Obv: CO AL[EX TRO?], turreted and draped bust of Tyche, right, with vexillium inscribed AV/CO over shoulder.
Rev: COL AVG TROAD, Apollo Smintheus, in himation, with quiver at shoulder, standing right, holding in right hand a patera over flaming tripod; in left, bow.
Refs: BMC 17.13, 38; cf. Bellinger A470-71; cf. RPC IX 523.

 

Thanks RC - I hadn't bumped into that thread. The plague/mice connection is interesting (especially now).

That you translate Greek is pretty impressive. After 4 years of Latin, I can barely stumble through a coin legend.

 

Mouse-Killing Apollo and His Coinage: New Light on the Mint of Alexandreia Troas in the Hellenistic Period

Aneurin Ellis-Evans
Lecture delivered at the American Numismatic Society on 15th September 2017 presenting work in progress on the history and coinage of Alexandreia Troas in the Hellenistic period.

From academia.edu

 

Thank you for that link!

 

Thanks for another lesson in mythology, the engraving is also very special.