Here's a coin I recently identified. I was looking through snake coins on Forum in order to id a couple of my other coins. I didn't even realize there was a snake on this one. Obverse: A girl entangled with a snake, amphora at her feet. Reverse: A curved blade with E and T in the field. The legend goes that 2 men encountered the girl and snake. When they used a knife to try to kill the snake they were unable to and the snake announced that it was a god. The snake and girl procreated and the resultant line was the people of Etenna in Pisidia. References: VCoins - https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/ma...a_19817__woman_with_snake/907921/Default.aspx Forum - https://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=1801&zpg=80283 IdI be excited to see other people's coins of this type as well as other coins that represent origin myths and stories (like the she-wolf suckling Remus and Romulus)
I have never heard that story. I read N.V. Sekunda, “Anatolian War Sickles and the Coinage of Etenna,” in R. Ashton (ed.), Studies in Ancient Coinage from Turkey but I can't find it now to check. I believed the origin myth of Etenna was lost to history.
Etenna types with 1) Two men in battle with curved knife and 2) Curved knife; both have the female walking with serpent on the opposite side.
Those are really cool! Definitely in better shape than mine too I like how much detail can be seen in yours. Awesome! Thank you for sharing
Here is a silver coin from Etenna PISIDIA. Etenna. 3rd century BC. Obol, 10 mm, 0.62 g Rev. Pruning hook (or war sickle, or harpa), with vine leaf to left. Ref: SNG France 1530 var (no leaf). Von Aulock, Pisidiens II 401–2 var. (no leaf). There are also gorgon/Athena obols with a mysterious symbol that looks like a lower-case letter t instead of the usual knucklebone or spear, like this: PISIDIA, Etenna?, 3/2 obol, 0.99g 9mm O: Facing head (humanized gorgon?). R: t and astragalos behind helmeted head (of Athena?). Historia Numorum, page 708; Imhoof-Blumer, Kl. M. XIII 2 No one is quite sure if these are Etenna or not. Imhoof-Blumer believed they are. I believe the symbol represents the hooked knife. These can often be picked up for the same price as the other ones. I should probably write up something on the obols of Selge and Aspendos. I never really cracked the system. The symbols are knucklebone (very common), spear (common), snake+knucklebone (rare), t (rare), t+knucklebone (rare). The snake and the t suggest Etenna. There are also imitative types.
I stumbled on this story researching a different coin with a warrior and snake from Pisidia (Isinda) (reference my notes here) Note: Anatolian War-Sickles and the Coinage of Etenna, Nicholas Victor Sekunda 1997 which does include a section on these coins but does not mention this story from the OP.
