Featured Is This What Alexander the Great Looked Like? A Diadochi Tetradrachm

Thanks! Yes....nice, even cabinet tone is my favorite for sure! Really brings out the design on these coins.

 

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Fantastic coin and awesome write up!!!

 

Very informative post. I enjoyed reading it and thanks for sharing!

 

But why does he have horns? It's a beautiful piece, I would love to acquire something similar.

 

The horns are merely a headdress that Alex decided to slip-on ... they are associated with Ammon (pretty cool actually)

https://www.google.ca/search?q=alexander the great with ammon horns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP_MfPztXTAhVn7YMKHRnQArcQsAQILw&biw=1280&bih=910

... kinda interesting (see link, below)

http://gnosticwarrior.com/ammons-horn.html

 

@stevex6 beat me to the punch and he's totally right.

The horn was associated with the Egyptian god Ammon (or Amun) who is often shown with horns of a Ram. The horns represented the Gods masculinity.

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A major worship center for Ammon was at Siwa which I have pictured in my OP. The reason Alexander has horns on the coin is because when he visited Siwa after conquering Egypt he was hailed as Ammons son there.

But why did Alexander (a Greek) want to be associated with an Egyptian god? Ammon was well known to the Greeks from a very early time due to the contact between the Greek colony Cyrene and Siwa. They equated him with Zues and so Alexander was rather modestly claiming he was the son of Zues.

 

Here is mine edited on my site. Nice article by the way, I enjoyed reading it.

 

I just took a look at your gallery. Great images - nice coins

 

I visited Siwa oasis a couple of years back. Great place but it gets pretty hot in summer. I visited the temple of Amun and and the oracle. Didn't get any hot tips from the oracle though.

For what Alexander looked like, I like this representation from a Roman villa:

 

That as an excellent write-up and some really beautiful coins from one of the most influential and charismatic historical figures ever.

I profess total ignorance about the portrait on the coins though. None (or very few) of the descriptions state portrait of Alexander III. They invariable state Head of Heracles. So who is it Alexander or Heracles??

Sorry for the stupid question.

 

Thank you!

 

If anyone wants to read an excellent in depth study, (500 pages long), on Alexander's image on statues, coins, medals, paintings etc., and the embedded symbolism in those images, Andrew Stewart's Faces of Power is a must read! It's well worth the reading effort and the cost of the book. The reader is well rewarded with surprising insights and information.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review:
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1995/95.02.09.html

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Faces-Power-Alexanders-Hellenistic-Politics/dp/0520068513

 

Terribly familiar coin. Did you buy this about 10-11 years ago per chance?

 

Not a stupid question at all. There is actually a lot of controversy about when images of Alexander first started appearing on coins.

If you look at the chart I posted in my OP the No. 1 tetradrachm is usually considered to show Heracles. It was a well established type showing Heracles well before Alexander was even born but some scholars claim that during Alexander's reign the features on the obverse started to resemble Alexander. This might be true of some of the mints in Asia but most agree that it was never officially recognized as Alexander.

This type is Heracles (beautiful image borrowed from @TIF )


These next show Alexander and were struck by his successors after his death to associate themselves with his legacy

Lysimachus King of Thrace


Ptolemy I King of Egypt (another TIF coin - her coins are great for illustrations)


Notice that both have horns

 

Also the features in the last two are different. And the face appears to be more chubby as well.

 

This is actually a consignment from one of the CoinTalk regulars. It has a pedigree from a Nomos FPL 2015. He may have gotten it there but I can't say for certain since it isn't my coin. Before that it was in Roma I believe.

 

I think most of that just comes down to the individual style and skill of the engraver. Remember that a lot of mints across the Hellenistic Empires were producing these before and after Alexander's death. Some mints might have had contemporary sculptures or paintings to use as models but others may have just had to use thier imagination or model off of other coins. You can see how variations can quickly emerge.

 

I would love to go to Siwa. A VERY pivotal experience in Alexander's life.

 

Siwa is a very interesting place. I was able to procure lodging for 30 Egyptian pounds per night (about $5.20) so I stayed for three days. The central part of town is dominated by a medieval mud brick qasr that is illuminated by night. After my visit to the oracle in the temple (basically it's a niche) I enjoyed a nice meal of roast chicken washed down with a beer as I enjoyed the glow of the qasr at in the evening. By then it had cooled off to the mid-eighties. It's a bit of a frontier town with both berber and arab influences. Somebody swiped my phone out of my backpack when I first arrived, so no pictures (boo-hoo).

 

Fun. I have had only a camera swiped in all my travels worldwide about 5 million air miles). I count myself INCREDIBLY lucky. When I lived in the UK, I had a Nile Cruise and Siwa side trip Holiday booked for my family. Alas, 911 hit a couple weeks before my trip. At that point, our Embassy considered me a prime target, and I regretfully cancelled.