Featured Is Elagabalus Really Wearing a Desiccated Bull Phallus on his Head?

Fantastic pickup Curtis, and great and interesting write up, I would have to say Bull's horn as most of these emperors liked to show how tough and strong they are, even if they were not.

 

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The "handles" of these bull pizzle walking canes do have a familiar shape.

 

Looks like I'm late to the party!


Elagabalus, AD 218-222.
Roman AR Denarius, 2.80 g, 18.3 mm, 6 h.
Rome mint, AD 221-222.
Obv: IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right, with horn on top of his head, signifying divine power.
REV: SACERD DEI SOLIS ELAGAB, Elagabalus, in priestly robes, standing right, sacrificing over altar and holding cypress branch, star in field, right.
Refs: RIC 131; BMCRE 225-226; Cohen 246; RCV 7542; Thirion 302.

 

That the "horn" was connected with Elagabalus' religion is clear from the chronology of its appearance on the coins. In mid-221 Elagabalus' final issue of coins began, comprising four rev. types that all showed him in Syrian priestly dress performing a sacrifice to his god: INVICTVS SACERDOS AVG, SACERD DEI SOLIS ELAGAB, SVMMVS SACERDOS AVG, and P M TR P IIII COS III P P. The "horn" made its appearance on his obv. portraits at the same time, and was probably never intentionally omitted from then until early in 222, when it was suddenly dropped from the obverses of all four of the main types, and of the additional types LIBERALITAS AVG IIII and LIBERTAS AVG, which obviously belong to 222 and the very end of the reign. I think Krengel is very probably correct with her suggestion that the "horn" was one of the objectionable attributes of the emperor's religion which he agreed to omit from the coins in his attempt to mollify the soldiers after his failed first attempt to murder his cousin Severus Alexander Caesar.

So it's reasonably clear that the "horn" was connected to the emperor's religion. As to what it was, maybe you should have added a fifth choice: "Evidence insufficient, case undecided"! In any case thanks for the very interesting presentation of the possibilities.

 

Nice coin! I have the same victory type for Elagabalus sans the “horn” as well. I need to give this coin another shot at a better picture as it is much nicer in hand.

Roman Empire
Elagabalus
AR Denarius, Rome mint, struck ca. AD 218-222
Obv.: IMP CAES ANTONINVS AVG; Laureate draped cuirassed bust right
Rev.: VICTOR ANTONINI AVG; Victory advancing right, holding wreath and palm branch
Dia.: 20.29 mm
Wt.: 3.26 g
Ref.: RIC IV 153
Ex Bill Rosenblum mailbox sale 28F, Nov. 1998

That is a wonderful coin and great information about the comet. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for the kind words AA! Yeah the horn theory is plausible and seems to have been the dominant mainstream theory since the 19th century. Still some interesting questions to answer if it is a horn.

Wow I just googled pizzle and learned more than I wanted to know. I’ll never look at a dog treat the same way now. Interesting addition that does seem to look a bit like the coins.

Not late my friend. We are just getting warmed up in the Elagabalus themed party.

Nice addition! Thanks for sharing.

 

...i'm with Brian..i never heard of that either...and im a country bumpkin ..and i'll show my "G" rated denarius of ole stone lover Elagalabus 18mm, 3.06gms

 

Thanks for the write up @Curtisimo, and lovely coin of Elagabal! I think I read somewhere that the bull dingeling theory had been discarded, but can't find it. In any case, I have no idea what it is. Elagabal is an interesting character. He had serious trouble relating to the practices of his contemporaries and I don't know why he insisted imposing his out-of-their-world religious practices on the Romans (especially the military), or at least displaying his practices in such a manner. Did he not see this would lead to his downfall? Perhaps he did, considering the comment by @curtislclay above (damage control via coinage!), but it was already too late.

here's my horned denarius:

And another peculiar practice:

 

I will pile on with another horned example.

Elagabalus Denarius
Obv:– IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate, horned, draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev:– INVICTVS SACERDOS AVG, Elagabalus standing holding patera over an altar and branch. Star in right field. Horn on ground to his left
Minted in Rome. A.D. 222
Reference– BMC 209 note. RIC 87 (where it is rated Common citing Cohen). RSC III 58. Cohen 58 (illustrated with star in right field) valued at 50 Fr. No examples in RD.

ex Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG Sale 42, Lot 379, 20th November 2007, ex Barry Feirstein Collection, previously privately purchased from Harlan J. Berk.

Described as Lightly toned and good extremely fine by NAC.

21 mm. 3.11 gms. 0 degrees.

 

What are the chances that this thread gets "Featured" . . . . ?

Z

 

Truly excellent write-up Curtis! Very happy to see that coin end up in a great home! When I was narrowing down my collection and selling off some of my coins, I had two similar coins of Elagabalus, so I was willing to part with that one because I felt like my collection would be OK with only one bull’s penis hat.

Here’s the one I still have, which I especially like because it has “ELAGAB” in the reverse legend.


Elagabalus, AR Denarius (19 mm, 3.13), Rome, Laureate and draped bust r., wearing 'horn' over forehead./ Rev. SACERD DEI SOLIS ELAGAB Elagabalus standing r. holding patera over lighted altar in his r. hand and club in his l.; star in field to r. RIC 131

 

Sometimes travesty transcends ignorance to the point of being humorous. I'm sure there is no one of sound mind that believes Jews have horns or walk on cloven hoofs. If you interviewed deranged people you would probably find some who believe the moon is made of green cheese & the earth is flat.

 

@curtislclay , I have a P M TR P IIII COS III P P, minus horn though.


Elagabalus (218 - 222 A.D.)
AR Denarius
O.: IMP ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right, from behind.
R.: PM T R P IIII COS III P P, Sol radiate, half-draped, with flying cloak, advancing left, raising right hand and holding whip; in field, star.
Rome mint, AD 220-221
20mm
3.49g
RIC IVb Elagabalus 40 (p. 31)

Reverse Die Clash

 

Mat,

But the dated type I am referring to had type Emperor sacrificing to his god, not Sol advancing or (another earlier type) Providentia standing.

The "horn" never appeared on coins of these earlier two TR P IIII types, which belonged to the end of Elagabalus' Issue 4 at Rome, but it was virtually never omitted on coins of the TR P IIII Emperor sacrificing type that I mean, which was one of the four main types of his Issue 5.

 

Al, I shared @DonnaML's impression of your laughing emoji. I thought, "What the......?"
Seriously, you would not believe what people still think about certain minorities. When I was growing up I had friends who told me that blacks had "stink glands" on the back of their necks. I'm not sure I totally believed it, but did sort of wonder if it could be true.

I can accept your view, Al, but my view is that posting the laughing emoji is in fairly bad taste.

Steve

 

Steve, I can accept your supercilious point of view as well .

 

Dang, Al, those big words always stump me.

Steve

 

I do not intend to do so myself. The academics are great, with the exception of "animal house" portions. To me , "Featured" is a thread that is appropriate to all that believe it has strong basis and is intended to educate about the subject. Rather than edit out the problems which have been well mentioned by several members, I will caution that the thread will be removed totally if it degenerates even more. Another moderator may do so, but I am not. You are a great group and well versed in your field and can and should take more consideration that your threads may be read by people who find them offensive. Jim

 

To the best of my knowledge this thread is one of the most clearly illustrated and most accessible explanations of the leading theories on the subject of the “horn” of Elagabalus in the English language (particularly considering the learned commentary of @curtislclay and others). Composing the write up required hours of meticulous translation of the German source material and study of various other primary sources. It draws from leading published academic sources and sites them clearly where appropriate. It also consciously uses non-colloquial terms to discuss the subject.

It honestly doesn’t matter to me whether the thread is featured or not but if the above doesn’t meet your standards of a “thread that is appropriate to all that believe it has strong basis and is intended to educate about the subject” then I am not sure what would.

 

you're write ups fine and so are the post that deal with the subject matter...but some have got off the path and went elsewhere Curtis, my old friend that's all