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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 5382798, member: 110350&quot;][USER=57495]@zumbly[/USER], I haven&#039;t retrieved or read the article yet, but I did say that &quot;I would feel that the theory was more persuasive if someone showed me an example of the reverse with a sphinx with any visible hair, never mind something resembling the elaborate hairstyle on the obverse.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>You have now shown me two such examples, and I freely admit that they&#039;re pretty convincing. The hair doesn&#039;t necessarily resemble the obverse portraits&#039; in style, but it definitely appears to be there, including some at the back of the head, one in some sort of bun and the other in something that looks like a pigtail. </p><p><br /></p><p>If that&#039;s the case, then could what I&#039;ve seen as the rim of a cap on the Sphinx&#039;s head on my example and [USER=19615]@Volodya[/USER]&#039;s -- and now on [USER=115308]@jdmKY[/USER]&#039;s as well -- actually have been intended to signify a band at the base of her hair, as present on the obverse? That would, nonetheless, still leave the question of where the hair itself is&nbsp; on those examples. Was it there, but worn off, no matter how otherwise well-preserved the coin might be? </p><p><br /></p><p>And, of course, the presence or absence of hair on the Sphinx&#039;s head doesn&#039;t itself prove the identity of the obverse portrait. But its presence does make the theory that the obverse is the Sphinx more plausible to me. Certainly -- and again, I haven&#039;t read the article -- the identification of the obverse as a Sibyl is also based on speculation. The theory appears to be based on the resemblance to an obverse-reverse combination of Sibyl and Sphinx regularly issued hundreds of years earlier in Gergis in Asia Minor, near Troas (hence Trojans, hence Aeneas, hence the <i>gens</i> Iulia, hence Julius Caesar). I don&#039;t necessarily accept that the fact that few, if any, people would have understood the reference as dispositive, since all one would really need is for one person, the moneyer, to have understood it. Like an inside joke. Yet, the connection is indisputably extremely obscure. It&#039;s not as if anyone seeing the Carisius could simply have gone and looked up Sphinx reverses on the Internet to figure out who the portrait might be! Especially given that the Sibyl on the Gergis obverses doesn&#039;t really look anything much like the obverse portrait on the Carisius coins; her head is facing front, turned slightly right, rather than in profile as on the Carisius coins. (See the links in my OP.) </p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t know if the article addresses it, but I&#039;d be very curious to know when the identification of the Carisius obverse as one Sibyl or another was first made.&nbsp; And on what basis. And whether the article&#039;s author was the first to suggest that the portrait represents the Sphinx herself. And, in fact, how long and on what basis the Gergis obverses have been identified as the Sibyl Herophile. There&#039;s no identifying inscription on those coins, either.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t think the question will ever be definitlvely answered, though. Unless someone finds an example of the T. Carisius on which it&#039;s clear that the Sphinx has a hairstyle closely resembling the one on the obverse portrait.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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