Musical Instruments (revisited?)

An aulos (double-piped reed flute) being played Marsyas the satyr.


PHRYGIA, Apameia
AE16. 3.31g, 16mm. PHRYGIA, Apameia, 133-48 BC. SNG Cop 193. O: Turreted head of Artemis as Tyche right, bow and quiver over shoulder. R: Marsyas [walking right on maeander pattern], naked, but for cloak behind, playing aulos (double-piped flute), APAME right; PANKP ZHNO (magistrate) left.

According to one legend, Marsyas competed against the god Apollo in a mythic 'Battle of the Bands' that was judged by the Muses. When Marsyas lost his challenge, Apollo flayed him alive and had his skin nailed to a pine tree. Ouch!

 

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This is probably my best 'musical instrument' coin.


Domitian
AR Drachm, 3.22g
Rome mint (for Lycia), 95 AD
RPC 1503 (2 spec.).
Obv: AYT KAIC ΔOMITIANOC CЄBACTOC ΓЄPM; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: ЄTOYC IΔ YPATOY IZ; Two lyres with owl perched on top
Ex Lanz, eBay, October 2017.

 

Which one(s) are you eyeing.

 

Yes, and you can read all about it here.


Claudius II Gothicus, AD 268-270.
Roman billon antoninianus, 4.07 g, 22.4 mm, 5 h.
Antioch, officina 5, issue 1, end 268-end 269.
Obv: IMP C CLAVDIVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: SALVS AVG, Isis standing left, holding sistrum and situla; Є in exergue.
Refs: RIC 217A; MER/RIC temp 1024; Cohen 256; RCV 11370; Huvelin 1990, 10; Normanby 1109.

 

It seems that a sistrum is typically ancient Egyptian. They used to play on it for their goddess Isis. A musical instrument for religious purpose.

 

Your asking the wrong person. Dead ear, not musically inclined, flunked elementary school music classes.

 

You are correct. As always, there's Wikipedia...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistrum

I thought I had one of a snake playing a sistrum (nerva coin) but it's actually a cadeucus...so I don't have one in my collection.

 

I've got rhy-thm! (One of my all-time favorite dad jokes, ala Steve Martin)
If you don't get it then Kithara off. Not as saweet as @chrsmat71's but I'll play back up.

ACHAIA, Pellene
Circa 300-250 BCE Æ
13mm Kithara / Tripod.
BCD Peloponnesos 601;
SNG Copenhagen -223.

 

..it took me 2 days to find these pics...instruments and my Antiochus ll Theos (along with Nero's SPQR) ..i'd say i had more musical coin, but that's make me a lyre...><

 

We pause this thread a moment for a developing thought............

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacon_Jones



A little bit of knowledge is dangerous..........

We now return you to your regular programming.

 

good song..i recall where i was the 1st time i heard it back in 78-79..one of those moments...

 

How about a violin? Okay, so it's not really a violin, but it looks like one, eh?

L PROCILIUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS PROCILIA
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Bust of Jupiter right, SC behind
REVERSE: L PROCILI F, Juno Sospita advancing right with sheild, spear aloft and serpent before
Struck at Rome 80 BC
3.7g, 19mm
Cr379/1, Syd 771, Procilia 1

 

LOL @Bing, I've certainly had the same thought! but that bow doesn't look very musical. Your coin is a particularly detailed and beautiful one - even has the f-holes on the violin!

 

Here is a tympanum(profile pic), like a tambourine from a Faustina jr sestertius:
surprised no one posted any drums or percussions yet except the sistrum. and another lyre from Teos.
Great music you all. @Bing that is a great Stradivarius for sure. Nice thread @Deacon Ray !

 

Excellent topic @Deacon Ray! Some beautiful lyres have passed by!

So how about some percussion from the east? The Damaru (Damru) was Shiva’s ritual power drum, used for creating cosmic rhythm and the like. It is quite frequently encountered on early Indian coinage, but in my opinion most beautifully on the Pyu & Mon city state coinage in what is now Myanmar/Burma. Take for example this silver unit (96 rattis) from the Pyu city state of Sri Ksetra, dating from roughly 750 to 835 AD. The obverse shows such a stylised Damaru, while the reverse sports a Stupa with the tree-of-life, a sankh shell and lightning bolt to either side and below the primordial ocean:



The same Damaru symbol can be seen to the right of the temple on this earlier unit (80 rattis) from the city state of Beikthano (although recent scholarship has reattributed them to Halin). The drum on the obverse has been replaced by the rising sun.

 

Somebody has these trumpets on reserve from Vcoins. @Deacon Ray maybe your friend at Zuzim could get you one of these?

 

There are no instruments on this coin but maybe a small fraction of the material was made from the trumpets that this rulers mad evil uncle stole from the Jerusalem temple and probably melted down? The ruler who minted this coin rescinded the evil decrees against the Jews just like A.Pius had done so with his ruthless predecessor.
Seleukid Kingdom: Antiochos VII Euergetes AR Tetradrachm
Tyre Mint 138-129 BC
Obverse: Diademed and draped bust right
Reverse: Eagle standing left on prow left; palm frond behind; to left, monogram above club surmounted by Tyre monogram; to right, monogram above BΠP (date); monogram between legs
References: SC 2109.10c; HGC 9, 1074; DCA 198
Size: 26mm, 13.20g
Happy Chanukah for those who celebrate the victories for religious freedom throughout history! There was a discussion about how we view the ancient personalities of history in another thread. History provides us with a record of how people have behaved towards each other just so we do not repeat the same mistakes. Good moral codes were available to all the folks from the era of the coins we collect. Sure the times were different from ours but there are no excuses for the extreme inhumanity that history has often presented us with. We must learn from our history, part of the beauty of all these coins.