Dear friends of ancient mythology! The myth of Daphne is probably one of the best-known stories of ancient Greece. But first my coin: The coin: Mysia, Apollonia ad Rhyndacum, Commodus, 177-192. AE 27, 6.91g, 26.5mm Obv.: [AV KAI M AVPHΛIOC - KOMMOΔOC] Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from behind, laureate, r. Rev.: A - ΠOΛΛΩNI - ATΩN. Apollo, nude, with waving chlamys advancing l., holding bow(?) in lowered left hand, grasping branch with raised right hand; on left before him Daphne kneeling l., head turned r., embraces a laurel tree with both arms Ref.: RPC online IV.3 No. 450.3 corr. (this coin, but mistakenly adopting the description of No. 450.2); von Fritze Mysia 268; F.W. Haslick, NC 1907, 440, no. 20 Very rare (1 of 3 known specimens), F+/almost VF, brown patina. Pedigree: Lanz Numismatik Notes: The RPC IV.2 coin has a slightly different rev. design and legend separation. The obv. legend also appears to be slightly different: possibly AVPHLIOC? The coins all show the scene where the transformation of Daphne has not yet begun. Mythology: There are several versions of this mythology. The most beautiful and poetic one is by Ovid. Therefore, I will at least put its content at the beginning: Apollo is known in mythology for liking to chase nymphs. Daphne was his first love. The reason for this, however, was the wrath of Cupid. Apollo had seen him draw his bow after his victory over the python and made fun of him: he should leave archery to real men. Cupid replied: "You can hit anything with your bow, but I can hit you!" Then he drew two arrows from his quiver with opposite effects: the gold-plated one produced passionate love, but the leaden one disgusted love. With this one he hit the nymph Daphne, the daughter of Pineus. The gold-plated one he shot at Apollo. Daphne roamed the woods with the virgin Phoebe (Diana) and hunted animals. Many suitors sought her, but she fled them all. Her father urged her to marry because he wanted grandchildren. She finally got him to recognise her wish for lifelong virginity. When Apollo caught sight of her, he was immediately enamoured of her. With flattering speeches he tried to beguile the terrified woman who was fleeing from him and raved about her beauty. These seductive speeches during his chase are the focus of Ovid's verse. When Apollo reached her on the banks of the Pineus and she saw no way out, she called desperately to her father to destroy her beauty. At the same moment she was transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo's love, however, was still not finished. He embraced the branches and kissed the tree, which avoided him. Then he put the laurel on his head in memory of Daphne. The versions report different origins of Daphne: (a) The nymph Daphne is the daughter of the river god Pineios (lat. Pineus) of the river of the same name in Thessaly and of Gaia (Hyginus; this was adopted by Ovid). b) She is the daughter of the river god Ladon in Arcadia and of Gaia (Tzetzes ad Lycophr.) c) She is the daughter of Amyklas, king of Sparta and founder of Amyklai (Parthenios of Nikaia). d) In her flight she had reached Antiocheia in Syria, where her transformation then took place. Notes: (1) Since all the river gods are sons of Okeanos and Tethys, in this case she is a granddaughter of Okeanos. (2) Amyklai is one of the oldest ancient cities on the Greek mainland. Already in Mycenaean times Hyakinthos, the lover of Apollo, was cultically worshipped there. After the conquest by the Spartans around 800 BC, the "Throne of Apollo" was erected there with a colossal statue of Apollo (Pauly). (3) The inhabitants of Antiocheia in Syria claimed that Daphne was a native of their country and still displayed in their suburb the laurel tree into which she was transformed. This suburb is called Daphne after her and was in ancient times a city of the rich and beautiful. Pausanias still saw the sanctuary of Apollo Daphnaios there. The "Grove of Daphne" still exists there today. (4) Johannes Tzetzes (c. 1110 - c. 1180) was a Byzantine grammarian. The Allegorias mythologicas, physicas, morales are known from him. He is also said to have been the author of the Commentary on Lykophron. Through his extensive commentary on classical authors, much information on Greek literature of the Classical and Hellenistic periods has been preserved. The version by Parthenios: The oldest version of the Daphne myth is by Parthenios from Nikaia, who refers to Diodorus and Phylarchus. Later it was adopted by Pausanias. In Parthenios, Daphne was the daughter of Amyklas, the king of Sparta (in Pausanias, the daughter of the river god Ladon). Her only pleasure was hunting and therefore she was especially loved by Artemis. She had sworn virginity to her and kept away from men and love. Leukippos ("the one with the white horses"), the son of Oinomaos, king of Pisa, a countryside in the western Peloponnese, fell in love with her and, seeing no other way to approach her, he let his hair grow long and disguised himself as a woman. In this way he managed to win the friendship of Daphne. She did not see through the deception and he became her best friend. But Apollo had also fallen in love with Daphne and was jealous of Leukippos. He gave Daphne the idea of bathing with her playmates. When they came to a river, the girls undressed, but Leukippos refused. When they forcibly undressed him, they saw that it was a man who had been living with them and immediately killed him with their spears. The story then continues with Apollo chasing Daphne as in Ovid, except that at the end Daphne begs Zeus, who turns her into a laurel tree. Etymology: Daphne is Greek for laurel. The explanation that daphne itself comes from δαιω (= I burn) and φωνη (= voice), because the laurel crackles in the fire (Eustath. ap. Gyrald), is only folk etymology. Background: The mythology of Daphne is quite clearly aetiological, i.e. it is meant to explain why the laurel is sacred to Apollo and why he has epithets such as Daphnaios, Daphnephoros or Daphnites. The river god Pineios may have entered the story because the area around the Pineios was known for its abundance of laurel. The quintessence that a virgin can gain eternal glory through chastity, as Hederich writes, sounds too much like Christian morality. Ultimately, this is also a story that shows the power of Eros, which is stronger than even the gods. Palaiphatos Palaiphatos tells us that Daphne, the daughter of the river Ladon and Gaia, at the end of her flight from Apollo, asked her mother to take her back to her and keep her as she had always been. And a rift opened and Gaia took her daughter to herself. In that place a plant (the laurel) sprang up immediately. It was taken up by Apollo who adorned his head with it Art History: The myth of Daphne has inspired numerous artists, usually focusing on the moment of transformation. I have chosen (1) the floor mosaic from the house of Menander in Antioch, late 3rd century AD, today in the Princeton University Art Museum. Daphne is depicted in the midst of transformation with branches of laurel reaching up from the earth to enfold. Apollo, reaching out to catch her, wears a radiant aureole, like a halo. (2) The famous marble group "Apollo and Daphne" (c. 1625) by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), which today stands in the Roman Villa Borghese. The work was commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese as the finale of Bernini's mythological sculpture group. It is worth circumventing this sculpture from behind in the opposite direction to the clockwise direction. Daphne is in the beginning of the transformation. What is remarkable is the progression of the transformation, the further one follows the direction of the group of figures. Around her legs, rising up to her left hip, there is already tree bark. (3) The painting "Apollo and Daphne", 1734/44, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, today in the Louvre/Paris. Here the transformation into a laurel has already begun on the fingers. In the foreground is her father, the river god. In Apollo, Tiepolo has taken a liberty: Apollo is already wearing a laurel wreath! Sources: (1) Hyginus, Fabulae (2) Nonnus, Dionysiaka (3) Ovid, Metamorphoses (4) Pausanias, Periegesis (5) Parthenios von Nikaia, Erotica pathemata (5) Plutarch, Parallelbiographien (6) Palaiphatos, Unglaubliche Geschichten Literature: (1) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, Leipzig 1770 (2) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Literatur (3) Der Kleine Pauly (4) Karl Kerenji, Die Mythologie der Griechen (5) Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie (6) Aghion/Barbillon/Lissarrague,Reclams Lexikon der antiken Götter und Heroen in der Kunst, 2000 Online Sources: (1) theoi.com (2) Wikipedia (3) Wikimedia Best regards Jochen
Another interesting article, @Jochen1 - also, as usual, well-researched and illustrated! Congratulations on the acquisition of that very rare coin. Here's Apollo with his bow on the reverse of this coin of Antiochos IV Epiphanes: SELEUKID KINGS OF SYRIA. Antiochos IV Epiphanes, 175-164 BC. AE (Bronze, 15 mm, 3.93 g, 1 h), Antiochia on the Orontes, circa 173/2-169 BC. Radiate and diademed head of Antiochos IV to right. Rev.BAΣIΛEΩΣ / ANTIOXOY - ΘEOY / EΠIΦANOY Apollo advancing right, drawing arrow from quiver with his right hand and holding bow in his left.
Congrats on your buy! I was eying the coin this coin that Praefactus had listed but wasn't willing to pay the 3x premium...
I can relate to this myth. I've spent a fair amount of time trying to beguile terrified women with flattering speeches.
What a brilliant coin! apollo is very under represented in coinage, in my opinion. nothing as cool as yours, but I’ve got Apollo with a nice contrapposto pose here
I enjoy teaching this myth in my world literature courses. I always show this fine Khan Academy video on the Bernini sculpture: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanit...que-italy/v/bernini-apollo-and-daphne-1622-25 If you've never been to the Borghese Gallery in Rome, try to make it. Since the Gallery limits the number of guests and restricts a particular time, it never feels overcrowded the way other Roman sites are. And if you can out-wait other tourists, you may have some works all to yourself towards the end of your allotted time. Students become quite engaged in considering what this myth says--and continues to say--about power, assault, privilege, and consent: factis modo laurea ramis / adnuit utque caput visa est agitasse cacumen •Ramus; branch •Adnuo: assent, approve, confirm by a nod. •Cacumen: summit; top. •Visa est “is seen/seems.” •Ago: to move; to set in motion. "In this way [modo] with branches having been made [ramis factis], the laurel confirms with a nod and the summit seems to have moved..." Who is interpreting Daphne's actions here? Apollo? Ovid? Is Daphne acquiescing to her transformation to escape sexual assault, or is that how Apollo chooses to interpret the laurel tree's movement? So much depends upon how visa est is translated. Is Daphne's metamorphosis a consolation...or a tragedy?
..i've only got Apollo on one coin i can think of, a Hostilian provincial, but with lyre i got from our good friend @Finn235 on his ebay shop .Hostilian provincial bronze,21.5mm, 7.78gms, Anazarbus Celicia. Obverse bare head bust right, reverse Apollo stands holding twig, legs crossed resting on a lyre on column. ref. wildwinds, Anazarbus, Ziegler 755
