Dear Friends of mythology! Coins with the depiction of Io I have found only from Gaza. On this coin she is named EIΩ on the left side of the rev. Why just from Gaza can't be explained for sure. The connection between Io and Gaza really is very thin. A possible approach could be the connection of Io to Egyptian deities like Isis or Hathor. Perhaps in Gaza ws a temple of Hathor which is not found until today (CNG). If that is true then the Greeks can well have identified her with Io. The coin: Judaea, Gaza, Julia Domna, AD 193-211 AE 22, 6.18g, 0° struck 206/7 (year 267 of the era of Gaza) Obv.: IOVΛ[ I ]A - ΔOMNA bust, draped, r. Rev.: [EIΩ - Γ]AZA / ZΞC (year 267) Io/Hathor, in long garment, stg. r., clasping hands with Tyche (City Goddess of Gaza), stg. l, wearing long garment and mural crown and holding cornucopiae in l. arm; between them Phoenician Mem, symbol of Marnas, the local god and Patron of Gaza Ref.: BMC 128 about VF, flan damage at 10 o'clock. Note: Often we find Io too in the shape of an heifer at the feet of the City Goddess. Mythology: Io (actually a shortform for Iole, Iokaste or the like), a nymph, was the daughter of the Argolic river-god Inachos and Melia. She was a priestress of Hera with whom Zeus fell in love because of her beauty. He changed to a fog and seduced her. That was regarded by his jealous wife Hera. To camouflage the rape Zeus changed Io into a white-glossy cow. But Hera saw through his trick and asked for the cow as gift. Zeus couldn't deny her ask. Hera then charged the hundred-eyed giant Argos Panoptes (= who sees all) to bring Io to Mykenai and to guard her. Zeus sent Hermes, the messenger of the gods, and Hermes put to sleep Argos by playing on his flute and killed him (whereafter he was called Argeiophontes, the Argos Killer), so that Io - still in the shape of a cow - could escape. This too was regarded by Hera. In memory of Argos she put his eyes on the tail feather of the peacock and she sent a horsefly, which pursued Io ceaselessly and threw her in panic. On her flight she crossed the sea which later was called Ionian Sea after her and crossed the ford between Europe and Asia, owing its name Bosporos (= cow ford) to Io too. Then she was galopping to Scythia, the mouth of the Danube, the Crimean peninsula and came to the Caucasus Mountains. There Io met Prometheus, who still was chained to the rock. He foretold her her future fate. Over India, Arabia and Ethopia Io finally came to Egypt where she begged the gods to save her. Because of the pleading requests of Zeus Hera agreed and gave her back her human shape and she gave birth to Epaphos. Hera, not yet satisfied in her avenge, asked the Curetes to hide Epaphos and they let him disappear. Therefore they were killed by Zeus. Io was wandering through whole Syria in search of Epaphos because she has heard that he was brought up by the wife of the king of Byblos. When she has found him she returned to Egypt, married king Telegonos and introduced the cult of Demeter, who is called Isis by the Egyptians. Io herself was identified with Isis too and Epaphos with the Apis Bull. She was said to have caused the Nile Flood and have saved the life of seamen. Epaphos married Memphis and became father of Libya who gave her name to the country of Libya. But this Greek suggestions can not remain because the Egyptian cults are much older than the myths of Io. Probably the wanderings of Io reflect the spreading of the Demeter cult and should confirm the Greek supremacy over all these countries. Literature: In Aischylos' 'Prometheus' Io is no more the priestress of Hera, but the shy child of a king and distressed by Zeus by dreams which she committed to her father to find protection against Zeus. But an oracle of the god expelled her to a long travel. She fell in madness and the head of a cow was growing on her. She was chased by a giant and after his death by a mosquito. But by all her suffering Zeus led her to the land of fulfillment. Sophokles has written a satyrical drame 'Inachos'. The Cyrenaicean Kallimachos suggested the festive reception of Io by the Egyptian gods as symbol for the melting of Greek and Egyptian culture. Herodotos in his Histories has a more rationalizing view: Io was the daughter of Inachos, the king of Argos. When the Phoenicians came to Argos for selling their products and Io was visiting their stalls, the Phoenicians raped her, whereupon the Greeks raped Europa, the daughter of the king of Tyros. So the abduction of women came in use: the Rape of Helena (Ilias) or the Rape of Medea (myth of the Argonauts). However it was told by the Phoenicians too that Io was pregnant by the shipmaster and in fear of the anger of her parents she was going with the Phoenicians of her one's free will. The ancient interpretation of Io as Moon Goddess (because of the cow's horns) was accepted still until now, so Ranke-Graves. But it is more probable that Io came from the cult circle of the βοωπις 'Ηρα (the cow-eyed Hera), whose hypostasis Io is and whose earliest manifestation she reflects. Similar motifs are found in the myth of the Proitids. Notes: (1) Hypostasis = Personification of a feature or an epithet, embodiment of an own deity (2) Proitids = the 3 daughters of Proitos, Lysippe, Iphinoe and Iphianassa. They all were priestresses of Hera but because of their beauty and the wealth of their parents felt superior to the goddess (or - according to another tradition - have denied to worship Dionysos) and became mad. They regarded themselves as cows, walked around on fields, mooed like cows, fumbled always for the horns on their heads and feared to be harnessed to the plough. It is said that they were saved by Melampos. Hathor: The Egyptian goddess Hathor shares with Io the shape of a cow. She is one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses and known alread fom the 1st dynasty. At first she was a local deity who then ascended to the Sky Goddess of the West and finally became the universal Mother Deity. Iconographically she was very similar to the even older goddess Bat who at last was absorbed by Hathor. At first she was worshipped as a cow, then depicted as a goddes with cow's horns pointing outwards and with the sun disk between. She was the wife of the sun god Ra and gave birth to Horus. Later she handed over symbols and functions to the younger Isis. Both were Mother and Death Goddesses. Since the New Empire Hathor could no more be distinguished from Isis. Marnas: Remarkable on the coin is the symbol between the two deities. It is the Phoenician letter 'mem' (= M, but there is another one too), the symbol of the god Marnas. Marnas is known only from Gaza. In fact there was found a column of Gordian III in Ostia with an inscription naming Marnas, but wether there was a sanctuary of Marnas in the western Empire is unproved. The name 'Marnas' means Aramaic 'Lord', like Hadad and Baal too. He was the local god and guardian of Gaza. He was seen as god of rain and grain and therfore invoked in the case of famine. He appears on coins since the time of Hadrian. Septimius Severus (or Severus Alexander?) is said to have sometimes exclaimed his name to vent his anger. In Gaza Marnas was identified with Zeus Kretagenes, the Cretan Zeus. It is likely that Marnas was the Hellenistic expression of Dagon. His temple, the Marneion — the last surviving great cult center of paganism — was burned by order of the Roman emperor Arcadius in AD 402. Treading upon the sanctuary's paving-stones had been forbidden. Christians later used these same to pave the public marketplace. But the veneration of the old cult was so great that even after years the inhabitants of Gaza haven't entered this place. Note: Dagon was a major northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain and agriculture. He was worshipped by the early Amorites and by the inhabitants of the cities of Ebla and Ugarit. He was also a major member, or perhaps head, of the pantheon of the Biblical Philistines. History of Art: In archaic works of art and until the 5th century BC Io was depicted as cow guarded b Argos, since the 5th century BC as wife with horns. I have added the pic of a red-figured hydria, ascribed to the Agrigento-painter. It is from 470-460 BC and is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston/USA. It shows the moment where Hermes draws his sword to kill Argos Panoptes, who covered with eyes should guard Io. At the left side Zeus and Hera are standing and regard the scene (The pic is made of several parts of the painting) On a Roman fresco in the House of Livia in Rome (c. AD 30) she is sitting on a rock between Argos and Hermes. Especially popular were scenes 'Io and Argos (and Hermes)' and 'Io's arrival in Egypt' on Pompeian wall paintings. I have added the pic of a Pompeian fresko from the Temple of Isis, today in the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale in Naples/Italy. This fresco is from the 1st century BC and shows Io's arrival in Egypt. She is welcomed by Isis and the small Harpokrates Together with Hermes, Argos an Hera Io appears on the reliefs of Antonio Filarete on the bronze doors of St.Peter in Rome (1433-45). Corregio has painted the copulation with Io in his series of Love adventures of Zeus. The pic shows the painting of Corregio 'Jupiter and Io', AD 1531/2, now in the KM in Vienna/Austria. Sources: (1) Ovid, Metamorphoses (2) Aischylos, Prometheus (3) Apollodoros, Bibliotheke Secondary literature: (1) Der Kleine Pauly (2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon (3) Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen (4) Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie (5) William Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (online) (6) Aghion/Barbillon/Lissarrague, Heros et dieux de l'antiquite. Guide iconographique (7) Maarten Jozef Vermaseren, Die Orientalischen Religionen im Römerreich (online) (8) Robert Turcan, The Cults of the Roman Empire (online) Online sources: (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagon (2) http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Io.html Best regards
@Jochen1 - as always a fascinating write-up of mythology, and art with an interesting coin! I will not look at my coins from the Bosporos again without thinking "Bosporos" = cow ford, named from the flight of Io in the form of a cow. While I have no coins of Io, here's another Io reference from NASA:
Amazing write up as always. I really LOVE your addition of art; that’s something I’ve emulated (with utmost respect!) in some of my own posts. I really like seeing coins with associated art.
@hotwheelsearl The connection to art history was advice from Patricia Lawrence, for which I am infinitely grateful. Jochen
Excellent education, @Jochen1 . Thank you very much. I have nary an IO, but I do have a few Hera / Juno coins: JUNO CAMPANIA - CAPUA Campania CAPUA AE Semuncia 216-211 BCE Diademed and draped bust of Juno r., with sceptre over l. shoulder. Rev. KAPV in Oscan characters Two Xoana draped; to l., triple knot. Ref: SNG ANS 215. Historia Numorum Italy 495. Comment: Rare. Green patina. Obv. Slighlty double struck; Hannibal capital Italia Ex: From the E.E. Clain-Stefanelli collection. SCARCE (Capua coins destroyed by Rome after recapture of city) From ACSearch for more History of this Semuncia: "...Bronze coin, probably valued as a semuncia, was struck by Capua in the dark days of the Second Punic War (218-201 BC). Following the shattering defeat of the Romans at the Battle of Cannae (216 BC), Capua sought recognition as Rome's equal. When the defeated Romans refused to agree, the Capuans opened the gates of their city to Hannibal and the Carthaginians with the intention of becoming the replacement Italian superpower once Rome was destroyed. Capua became an important base for Hannibal in Italy and served as his secure winter quarters for years until at last it was besieged and captured by the Roman proconsul Q. Fulvius Flaccus in 211 BC. Once the city had fallen, many nobles of Capua were executed or imprisoned for counseling the secession of the city from the Roman alliance and the common people were deported to other cities. Capua was given over to a foreign population and placed under a Roman prefect while the territory of the city was absorbed by the Roman state. While the obverse clearly depicts the goddess Juno, it is unclear who is represented by the two xoana (wooden cult images) depicted on the reverse. As there are two it might be tempting to think of the Dioscuri, but this seems unlikely as the xoana appear to be female with veiled heads. A legend written in the Oscan script names the city." ROMAN REPUBLIC Roman Republic Head Juno Sospita R goat skin headdress She-wolf R placing stick on fire eagle standing fanning flames 45 BCE 19.0mm 4.07g Crawford 472-1 ROMAN EMPIRE Roman Empire Crispina m Commodus 177 CE AR Denarius 2.29g Juno standing RIC-283
