Dear friends of ancient mythology! The botanical season, in which I roamed through meadows and forests almost daily as a volunteer mapper for the Stuttgart Natural History Museum to discover new plants, is coming to an end. Now I have more time again to take care of numismatics and ancient mythology. And finally I have found a coin worthy of being presented here. Its condition is suboptimal, but it is one of the rarer ones. The coin: Syria, Coele-Syria, Damascus, Trebonianus Gallus, AD 252-253 AE 25, 9.20g Obv.: [IMP C] VIB TREB GA[LLO AVG] Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from behind, laureate, r. Rev.: COL ΔAMA CO METRO. The nymph Ambrosia, nude, standing frontally, head n. r., holding in both hands vines, her feet growing out of the earth. Ref.: RPC IX, 1949 (there are several slight variations of the rev. image, here e.g. the grapes below the elbows) The Hyades The Hyades, from Greek. Hyades (= "who make it rain"), were nymphs of Greek mythology, already mentioned by Homer in the Iliad. As a constellation, the Hyades are found as a V-shaped star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. The largest star among them is Aldebaran at the bottom left. There were already different views in antiquity about their number and their lineage. In Hesiod there were five. According to Hygin, the Okeanide Pleione (or Aithra) gave birth to 12 daughters and the son Hyas to Atlas. When the latter was killed in the hunt, Zeus placed seven of them in the starry sky as Pleiades, and the other five, who had especially wept for him, as Hyades. Pherekydes knows seven: Ambrosia, Eudora, Pedile, Koronis, Polyxo, Phyto and Thyone. Their mother was Boiotia. Among them we now find our Ambrosia. They looked after Dionysus in his childhood and their role was probably thought to parallel that of the nymphs Adrasteia and Ide, who raised and guarded little Zeus on Crete. The nymph Ambrosia In describing the coin, Barclay Head writes to the reverse "Maenad(?)" and indeed, for certain identification, a reference to the terrible fate of Ambrosia, who is not depicted on the coin, is missing. Nevertheless, I adopt here the description from RPC IX, 1949, which Leu Numismatik also did. That the nymph's legs grow out of the earth is very unusual and could be a reference to Gaia, who plays a not insignificant role in the tale of Nonnos. There are also different genealogies for Ambrosia, Greek Ambrosia (= "immortal", with emphasis on the i(!). In Hygin she was the daughter of Pleione and Atlas. She became a Dodonaean nymph and a nurse of Dionysos. In Nonnos she became the companion of the wine god Dionysos, a maenad. The most impressive description of her fate is found in Nonnos (Dionysiaka, lib. 21). These events took place after Dionysos had passed through Thrace on his way east or on his return from India. Lykurgos, King of Thrace Lykurgos appears in all mythologies as a fanatical opponent of Dionysos. Most often, Lykurgos is used to refer to the mythical king of the Edonians in Thrace. When Dionysos wanted to go from Asia across the Hellespont back to Europe, Lykurgos offered him his friendship. But when Dionysos translated his maenads first, Lykurgus ordered them all to be killed along with Dionysos. Dionysos, however, was warned by a man called Tharops and just managed to escape to the other side of the Hellespont. His companions, the Maenads, were all killed on the orders of Lykurgus. Here the name Ambrosia already appears. After Dionysos had crossed with his army, a battle took place in which Lykurgos was defeated and captured. Dionysos had his eyes gouged out and crucified. He handed over his kingdom to Tharops (Diodorus Siculus). In another version it is said that Lykurgos taunted Dionysos and finally chased him away, but captured his companions. Then Dionysos struck Lykurgos with madness, so that he mistook his son Dryas for a vine, struck him down with an axe and cut off his own feet until he regained his senses. A great barrenness then came over his land and the oracle answered that it would only end when Lykurgos had shed his mortality. Then the Edonians led him to Mount Pangaios and had him torn apart by horses (Apollodor). Others tell that he did not want to acknowledge Dionysos as a god, and when he was drunk with wine and wanted to rape his own mother, he thought the wine was poison and ordered all the vines to be uprooted. Then Dionysos drove him mad, so that he slew his wife and son and cut off one of his own feet, which he thought was a vine. Then Dionysos throw him ro his panthers on the mountain of Rhodopes (Hygin. Fab.). There are other versions of his end. But even though Dionysos always had to flee from him at the beginning, he was able to capture him afterwards. He had him bound and scourged with vines so violently that Lykurgos had to shed tears. These fell to the ground and cabbage grew from them. This is still today an enemy of the vine.(Schol. Aristoph. in Equis.) In the oldest story (Homer, Iliad) he pursued the nurses of little Dionysos on Mount Nysa. These threw their thyrses to the ground, while Lykurgos wounded them with his hatchet. Little Dionysos threw himself into the sea, where Thetis picked him up and comforted him. The gods were enraged by the atrocity and struck Lykurgos with blindness. Shortly afterwards he died. There was a tragedy about him by Aeschylus, but it has not survived. Already Diodoros, who reports the battle between Lykurgos and Dionysos, states that Antimachos transferred this battle to Arabia. This was taken up by Nonnos in his extensive work "Dionysiaka". He narrates: On its way to India, his army reached Arabia via Tyros, Byblos and Lebanon. There a son of Ares ruled, the terrible Lykurgos, who slew all strangers and wanderers, slaughtered them and decorated his palace with their limbs. Lykurgos pursued the female companions of Dionysus, here called Bassarides (after Greek "Bassaris" = "fox fur", which they wore like the Nebris, the deer skin) and took up the fight against them. In particular, the maenad Ambrosia, one of the Hyades, resisted him valiantly; almost overcome, she was transformed into a vine by Gaia, Mother Earth. With her tendrils she inextricably entwined herself around Lykurgos, and since by Rheia's grace human speech was preserved for her, she mockingly addressed her opponent. Ares could not free his son, but at least took the divine battle-axe from him. The Maenads surrounded the bound opponent and scourged him cruelly. At Rheia's request, Poseidon caused an earthquake in Arabia. At the same time, the inhabitants of Arabia, the "Nysaeans", were seized with madness, so that they killed and slaughtered their own children. The maltreated Lykurgos did not bow to Dionysus, but persisted in his defiance of all the gods. At last Hera took pity on him, cut the tendrils of ambrosia and thus freed Lykurgos. He was later blinded by Zeus, but the Arabs worshipped him as a god with sacrifices. Ambrosia, however, ascended from the earth into the sky and was transferred to the constellation of the Hyades. This would have been a nice theme for Ovid's "Metamorphoses", but Nonnos lived almost 500 years after Ovid! And now it also becomes geographically understandable that this motif with Ambrosia was struck precisely on coins from Damascus. Otherwise Damascus only appears once: On his way to India, the king of Damascus confronted him on the Euphrates. He was flayed alive (Ranke-Graves). But I have not been able to find out anything more about this. Art history: The motif of Ambrosia has been taken up several times in ancient art. I have selected the following pictures: (1) This image is from an Apulian red-figure vase from the Late Classical period, c. 330 BC, and is now in the Staatl. Antikensammlung, Munich. King Lycurgus holds the body of Ambrosia, whom he has just slain with his sword. The angry god summons an Erinnye to drive him mad. She is depicted as a winged huntress whose arms and hair are draped with poisonous snakes. Dionysus wears elaborate clothing with high boots and holds a tree branch in his hand. Behind him, the thyrsos of a maenad is still visible. This vase does not have the vine tendrils that are present on our coin and so typical of the Nonnos narrative. (2) The mosaic pictured above was found in Herculaneum and is now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. It shows Lycurgus, the enemy of Dionysos, attacking the nymph Ambrosia. The latter is in the process of transforming herself into a vine and binding Lycurgus with her shoots to deliver him to the vengeance of Dionysus. It seems to grow out of the earth, which is reflected in the depiction on our coin. So at this time the version that Nonnos later adopted is already known! Ambrosia, the food of the gods We already know that Ambrosia means "immortal" in Greek. And so Ambrosia was the food reserved for the immortals. Whoever ate it became immortal himself. This happened to Tantalus, for example, and Thetis anointed her son Achilles with Ambrosia to make him immortal. The first to receive ambrosia was Zeus, to whom it was brought by wild doves from the mountain tops of Crete. In Homer, the terms "ambrosia" and "nectar" are still interchangeable. Later, ambrosia was used to refer to food and nectar to refer to something to drink. Ambrosia was used as food, drink, balm, ointment and as a remedy. It was famous for its fragrance and would have tasted sweet. Rationalists thought it was honey, e.g. Roscher: "This fits wonderfully with honey, which was also conceived as a gift from the gods." The nymph Ambrosia would then have been the personification of honeydew. The immortal horses were also fed with ambrosia. This has also been inferred the other way round: since horses are usually fed oats, ambrosia could simply have been oatmeal! The idea of nectar and ambrosia serves the human desire for immortality, present from early on in all cultures, and for a magic cure to achieve it. This is back in a big way today, when ageing is seen as a disease, as seen in the billions spent on anti-ageing products. Behind the desire for eternal life, however, the present is too often forgotten. Ragweed, an allergenic neophyte As an amateur botanist, I would like to conclude by mentioning the mugwort ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia), or Ambrosia for short. This is an invasive neophyte and originates from the Mediterranean region. It has been known in Germany since 1860, but as a field weed it was always tied to humans. Since the 1990s, it began to spread under its own steam and has now become a major threat. Typical features are its strong branching and tall inflorescences. Its pollen has a strong allergenicity that is 5x higher than that of grass pollen. Truly no food of gods! Notes: (1) Pherekydes of Syros (* between 584 and 581 BC on the island of Syros, one of the Cyclades) was an ancient Greek mythographer and cosmologist in the time of the Pre-Socratics. . (2) Nonnos of Panopolis was a Byzantine poet of the 5th century. He is considered the author of the Dionysiaka, the last great epic of antiquity. In 48 books or cantos and approx. 21,300 hexameters, he describes the triumphant march of Dionysus to India. (3) Dodona was an ancient Greek sanctuary and oracle in Northern Greece. It was considered the oldest oracle in Greece and, after Delphi, the largest supra-regional oracle in the Greek world. The rustling of an oak tree sacred to Zeus was used for divination, and later the flight of doves was also used for divination. (4) Antimachos of Kolophon was a Greek poet and grammarian who lived around 450 BC. He is considered one of the founders of the epic. (5) Nysa is considered to be the place where Dionysus was raised and nourished by nymphs. This is probably only a figment of the imagination. Later, various places were called Nysa. Nonnos relocates Nysa to Arabia. (6) A neophyte is a plant that only naturalised in Europe after 1492. A neophyte is invasive if it spreads uncontrollably. Sources: (1) Homer, Ilias (2) Apollodor, Bibliotheka (3) Hyginus, Fabulae, De astronomia (4) Nonnos, Dionysiaka Secondary literature: (1) Heinrich-Wilhelm Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, 1884 (2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, 1770 (Nachdruck) (3) Barclay Head, Historia Numorum (online Version von Ed Snible) (4) Der Kleine Pauly Internet sources: (1) Wikipedia (2) theoi.com (3) RPC IX Best regards Jochen
Addendum on Damascus: I have now found something about Damaskos in the Ethnika of Stephanos of Byzantium. (1) There he tells of a Damaskos, the son of Hermes and the nymph Halimede (who is also mentioned by Hesiod and Apollodor), who came from Arcadia to Syria and founded the city of the same name here. This of course speaks for a king. (2) Or a man named Damaskos, who cut down the vines planted by Dionysus in Syria with an axe and was therefore flayed by the enraged god. This coincides with the account of a king of Damascus mentioned by Ranke-Graves. Stephanos of Byzantium also tells of a giant named Askos. Together with Lykurgos, he tied up Dionysus and threw him into a river. Hermes (or Zeus) freed Dionysus, overpowered (Greek: εδαμασεν) the giant and removed his skin, which yielded a tube (Greek: ασκος) suitable for storing wine. It is from this event that the city of Damascus in Syria got its name. Best regards Jochen
Another very interesting and informative post, @Jochen1 - it took me getting some help on NF but it turns out I also have an Ambrosia from Damascus - in very poor condition, unfortunately: Volusian Æ 23 (251-253 A.D.) Syria, Coele-Syria, Damascus IMP GALLO VO[L]OS[SIANO AVG], laureate, draped and cuirassed bust seen from front / [COL ΔAMAS] CO METRO, naked Ambrosia standing (head right?), holding two vines, her feet growing from the earth (10.93 grams / 23 x 22 mm) eBay Dec. 2022 Attribution & Die-Matches: RPC IX 1965A; De Saulcy 8; Rosenberger –; BMC –; SNG München –; SNG Hunterian –; SNG Cop. –. Obv.-Rev. Die-Matches: RPC No. 1: Bibliothèque nationale, Inventory 114 RPC No. 2: CNG EA 341; Lot 71; 17.12.14 RPC No. 3: Savoca 108 Silver; Lot 364; 31.07.21 Notes: "The figure on the reverse has often been described as Dionysus holding vines, but as the type represents a female this identification can be discounted. For recent interpretations of this very interesting type, see G. Bijowski, “The myth of Daphne on a coin minted at Damascus,” AJN 15 (2003), pp. 53-9 and K. Butcher, “Ambrosia in Damascus?,” NC 170 (2010), pp. 85-91." CNG The article by Butcher on these issues is here: https://www.academia.edu/433288/Ambrosia_in_Damascus
Very interesting coins, indeed... Nonnos locating this myth in Arabia may also be due to the fact that Dionysos and Lycurgus are the Greek names of Arab deities worshiped by ancient Arabs in the Hauran in the Roman period. The worshipping of the god Lycurgus is known through several epigraphic dedications found in Soada (as-Suwayda), Athela (today 'Atil), Saba (Shahba) and other places in the Hauran, the region south of Damascus. Altar dedicated to "The god Lycourgos", found in 'Atil. (Annie Sartre-Fauriat and Maurice Sartre, Inscriptions Grecques et Latines de la Syrie XVI-1, nr. 32 (2020)) Nonnos calls this Lycurgus the son of Ares: in the same region, precisely in Canatha (al-Qanawat), Ares was worshiped too, as inscriptions (again) tell us. This Arabian Ares was the hellenization of Arsa or Arsu, a camel-riding deity, and it is probably this god who is represented as a camel-rider raising hand with the legend "god of the people of Canatha" on a rare coin of this city (under Elagabalus) previously misattributed to Bostra. The cult of Bacchus / Dionysos is, of course, also attested in the same region: Soada (today as-Suwayda) was promoted to city-status with the name Dionysias under the Roman Empire. It has been suggested for long that this Dionysos was the hellenization of Dusares, the supreme Arab Nabataean deity, but this is challenged by Annie and Maurice Sartre in their recent publication of the inscriptions of as-Suwayda. They suggest instead that Nysa could have been an ancient name for the city... The Arab god Lycurgus was an enemy of Dionysos and probably the same as Shay al-qawm (his Arabic name?), Nabataean protector of armies and caravans, said by inscriptions "who does not drink wine". So we find the gods Lycurgus, Ares and Dionysos well attested in the region South of Damascus, called "Arabia" in Antiquity, on the NW slopes of the volcanic mountain still named today "Jabal al-'Arab". It is the country where the Roman emperor Philip "the Arab" was born, at Saba (today Shahba). One character was missing to complete the myth : Ambrosia. Hence the importance of this rare coin in the OP : Ambrosia is represented on Damascus coinage! There is also another very rare Damascus coin showing Ambrosia and a male character who can be Dionysos or, more probably, Lycurgus. Only one example known: CNG eAuction 427, lot 370 = RPC VIII, unassigned; ID 26800. Not my coin of course, I don't know who bought it - but he or she did well! The myth of Ambrosia was also represented on reliefs of the adyton of the Bacchus temple in Heliopolis/Baalbek, another sanctuary with deep Arab roots.
