Meaning of crescent and seven stars (or six stars and the sun)?

Diva Faustina Junior consecration issue. It has a crescent (probably to represent the moon) and a large star within the crescent (possibly to represent the sun), all surrounded by six stars.

Does anyone know what this symbolism represents? There were only 5 planets known in classical antiquity: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, so they couldn't be represented by the six stars surrounding the moon and the sun. Perhaps the Pleiades?

I know there are coins of the Severan dynasty with similar reverses bearing a crescent with one, five, or seven stars.

Post anything you feel is relevant!


Faustina Jr, AD 161-175
Roman AR denarius; 3.14 g, 17 mm
Rome, AD 176 or later
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA PIA, bare-headed and draped bust right
Rev: CONSECRATIO, crescent moon around large star, surrounded by six stars
Refs: RIC 750; BMCRE 718; Cohen 83; RCV 5219; MIR 63; CRE 172.

 

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Nice Faustina Minor.. wasn't there a story of the 6 sisters that were supposed to be stars in the sky...?!?...i seemed to remember something on them, but it's sketchy..idk...

 

Those are the Pleiades, also known as the seven sisters, though only 6 stars are easily visible to the naked eye.

 

Very nice OP!!!


Off the top of my head, I seem to recall a reference to the moon being associated with the Goddess Venus....and the stars associated with the Pleiades as suggested above.

Here's a budget example of Diadumenian:

 

Here's a Coinweek article:
https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/star-crescent-ancient-coins/

Thrace, Philippopolis. Septimius Severus Æ22 Obv: AV K L C CEVHPOC, laureate head right.
Rev: FILIPPOPOLEITWN, crescent moon and four stars

 

This article also mentions that the star/crescent may have also signified a total solar eclipse when the crescent shape appears and also planets appear around the disc in the darkened sky.http://tjbuggey.ancients.info/astro.html

 

For the ancients the soul realm/being dimension(ether for Plato) was divided into seven firmaments that were hooked up to the five visible planets and the orb of the sun and moon. These firmaments or heavens surrounded the terrestrial sphere like layers of an onion. Of course for most of these folks the Earth was an embodiment of deity herself(as we see on lots of great coins). They were more concerned with the apparent motion of the celestial orbs than the spatial relationships. It was a way of understanding a 5-D worldview where being or soul is as important as space/time and as original as the physical cosmos.

 

If you have five large this amazing star/crescent coin is available on vcoins.

 

This one fit into my budget and it was minted close to 44 bce I believe to acknowledge the deification of the Caesar line with the comet of 44.

 

The moon(diana) being the nearest firmament to Earth she is the wayshower/lighter-torchbearer for the discarnate souls as seen on this Faustina Jr. "the stars receive"" Sideritus Receptus(sp?)

 

Thanks. I just bought it!...
...and then I woke up. Sigh...

 

I vote for the Pleiades...plus the crescent moon. I asked the forum members on an astronomy forum I am a member of what they thought and most of the folks think it's the Pleiades...

 

Especially in these days of light pollution. I stayed out all night one night under a dark sky for a meteor shower in the late 1970s; my youthful eyes, fully dark-adapted, let me see eleven of the Pleiades.

There are cross-cultural stories of a "lost" Pleiad, and astrophysics says it's plausible -- the seventh-brightest star in the cluster is surrounded by gas shells, indicating that it may have been brighter in early historic times.

 

Great article! Thanks! And nice looking coin!

 

Reviving this zombie thread to post an update -- an as of Faustina I with a similar reverse type. This coin comes in both bare-headed and veiled bust types, as is typical for the coins of Faustina I issued during the period immediately after her death.


Faustina I, AD 138-140.
Roman Æ as, 12.20 g.
Rome, AD 140.
Obv: DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA •, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: S C beneath crescent and seven stars.
Refs: RIC 1199a; BMCRE 1476-77; Cohen 275; Strack 1249; RCV 4658; Dinsdale 018920.

 

Very nice as Roman Collector. I also recently buy this Fastina II AE as with same reverse, but not so nice as your:

With crescent also I have this Hadrian denarius:
and this Geta from Thrace, Pautalia, small bronze coin:

 

Interesting coins, all of them. I like the Geta provincial.