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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Ed Snible, post: 3643294, member: 82322&quot;][USER=96635]@Pavlos[/USER] your example is very nice!&nbsp; I don&#039;t think I have seen a better preserved example.</p><p><br /></p><p>The &quot;over-the-shoulder&quot; pose of Perseus was also used on a later Provincial coin:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]978202[/ATTACH]</p><p>Iconium (as Claudiconium), Titus, 79-81 AD, AE19 6.23g</p><p>Obv: AYTOK[RATWR TITOS KAISER] Titus bust</p><p>Rev: KLAYD EI[KONIEWN] Head of Perseus</p><p>von Aulock Lykonians 286-8</p><p><br /></p><p>Sir William Mitchell Ramsay wrote in <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=qslMAQAAMAAJ&amp;lpg=PA78&amp;ots=P7b6Fouhm4&amp;dq=perseus%20myron%20acropolis&amp;pg=PA78#v=onepage&amp;q=perseus%20myron%20acropolis&amp;f=false" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://books.google.com/books?id=qslMAQAAMAAJ&amp;lpg=PA78&amp;ots=P7b6Fouhm4&amp;dq=perseus%20myron%20acropolis&amp;pg=PA78#v=onepage&amp;q=perseus%20myron%20acropolis&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">The Cities of St. Paul</a> </i>(1908) that coins of Iconium featuring Perseus probably depict a Hellenistic statue modeled after the famous 500-400 BC figure of Perseus by Myron.&nbsp; Ramsey’s claim seems dubious.&nbsp; The coins show Perseus in a variety of poses.&nbsp; Which depicts the hypothetical statue, if any?</p><p><br /></p><p>The over-the-shoulder artistic convention at Iconium must have been inspired by some statue, painting, or artistic convention.&nbsp; Here is later coin with the same style, but this time it is not Perseus over-the-shoulder.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]978203[/ATTACH]</p><p>Iconium (as Claudiconium). Hadrian (117-138 AD). AE. Weight: 2.36 g. Diameter: 17 mm.</p><p>Obv: ΑΔΡΙΑΝΟС ΚΑΙСΑΡ. Bare head left.</p><p>Rev: ΚΛΑΥΔЄΙΚΟΝΙЄωΝ. Perseus standing facing, head right, holding harpa and severed head of Medusa.</p><p>Ref: RPC III <a href="http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/2825/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/2825/" rel="nofollow">2825</a></p><p>ex-Numismatik Naumann, Auction 45, July 3rd 2016, lot 536</p><p><br /></p><p>The heroic from-the-back bust of Hadrian is surprising. Note that two earlier coins of Iconium feature a bust of Perseus depicted from the back. Hadrian has been rendered in the same pose as the city founder.</p><p><br /></p><p>Supposedly Iconium is named for an &quot;Icon&quot; of Medusa that Perseus himself brought to Iconium.&nbsp; The 12th century medieval writer Eustathius of Thessalonica records that Dionysius Periegetes claimed Perseus brought the image of Medusa to Iconium. Dionysius Periegetes probably wrote during the time of Hadrian.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here is a coin that may depict that image on the reverse:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]978205[/ATTACH]</p><p>Lycaonia, Iconium, 100 BC - 54 AD, AE16, 3.90g.</p><p>O: Beardless head of Dionysos right, crowned with ivy, thyrsos behind shoulder, within beaded border.</p><p>R: Winged icon of the gorgon, facing, two snakes above, snake ties below chin, ЄΙΚΟΝΙЄΩΝ around, within beaded border.</p><p>Ref: Lindgren &amp; Kovacs A1376A, von Aulock <i>Lycaonians</i> 200</p><p><br /></p><p>The pairing of Dionysos with a gorgon is surprising.&nbsp; Perseus battled Dionysos in mythology but the story is not well known.&nbsp; Dinarchus of Delos, writing in the 4th century BC, claimed&nbsp; that Perseus killed Dionysos and buried him in a tomb at Delphi.&nbsp; In the third century Euphorion, a poet, wrote that Dionysos destroyed Perseus’ city.&nbsp; Pausanias claimed Dionysos fought Perseus but later made peace.&nbsp; Pausanias actually saw the tomb of one of Dionysos’s intoxicated female soldiers.&nbsp; This coin, and another with Dionysos depicting Perseus on the reverse, may relate to that mythological story.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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