Dear friends! Here I want to share another article of the kind I love. The subject of this article is not only mythology but the way in which we have solved the riddle of the presented coin. So I will begin with mythology and then in the second part turn to the coins. But to understand this article fully you must mention that there are 2 persons named Pygmalion who should be distinguished. 1. Pygmalion I was king in Cyprus, who has fallen in love to an ivory statue of Aphrodite. He treated her as a living woman, laid her in his bed and dealt with her like his spouse. (Philostephanos, after it also Clem. Alex. protr. and Arnobius adv. nationes). According to Ovid (Met. X., 243ff.) Pygmalion was a sculptor, who, because of bad experiences with women, the so-called Propoetides, has decided to stay unmarried. But when he once has created a beautiful maiden from ivory he felt in love with her and treated her as his lover. He gave her gifts and caressed her. On a feast in honour of Aphrodite he prayed to the gods to give him a consort like this ivory statue. And Aphrodite has heard his prayer. When he came home and kissed his statue he felt that she became warm and alive. The Kleine Pauly is seeing in this invention a prize for the creating artist, who - when he is laying his soul into his creation - comes near to the creative deity or nature. Religio-historically Pygmalion is probably the Cyprian form of Adonis in whom the vitalizing power of spring is incarnating (Pauly). The name of Galatea was added to his mistress not before the 18th century AD. Pygmalion has with her a daughter (or son) Paphos, who again has a son Kinyras. From Paphos later the whole island of Cypros got its name. Roscher suggests that this is the original myth and that the variant of Philostephanos is only an abbreviation. Notes: [1] In Greek mythology the Propoetides are the daughters of Propoetus in the city of Amathus (Ovid, Met. X., 220ff.). They are seen as the first women of antiquity who prostituted themselves publically. When they refused to present offerings to Venus they were punished by the loss of any sense of shame so that soon nobody wanted to be concerned with them. Venus then turned the Propoetides to stones (Wikipedia). In psychology 2 further terms are used which originate from the mythology of Pygmalion: [2] Agalmatophilia (Pygmalionism): This is the strong affection (even sexually) to (nude) statues. Also other inanimate human depictions like paintings or (sex-)dolls can serve as fetish. [3] The Pygmalion effect (= Rosenthal effect) was described in social psychology. By experiments in 1965 the American psychologist Robert Rosenthal detected that the idea which a teacher has of a student has an impact on the IQ of this student. If the teacher takes a student for highly talented this student makes more improvements than if he takes him for less able. This is a kind of "self-fulfilling prophecy". 2. Pygmalion II, Phoenician Pu'mayatton, 831-785 BC, son of Belos II (or of Mutto), was king of Tyre.His sister was Elissa, Phoenician meaning "heroine" or "the divine", later called Dido (probably from Phoenician 'didas' = "who moves around'. Because of greed he killed Sychaeus (or Sicharbas), the husband of Elissa and one of the most wealthy Tyrians, to get his treasures. In a dream the dead appeared to Elissa and revealed the crime. Thereupon Elissa took the treasures and with some faithful she fled from Tyre. On her flight she first came to Kypros, where she took a priest of Herakles and 80 virgins. To this connection between Tyre and Kypros we will come later. The further story of Elissa you can read in the proper article about Dido in this thread. By the way, she has had a sister Anna Perenna whose fate is subject of another article in this thread. This story is told by Vergil in his Aeneis, I, 347. Roscher writes: It is possible that a king with this name has ruled besides Tyre in Kitium too, the Tyrian part of Kypros. Pumay probably is the name of a Phoenician god. Pumaj, the god, was called 'eljon (= geljon), so Pumaj-geljon which was made by the Greeks to Pygmalion. Thus Pygmalion actually is a deity and that fits the concept of breathing life into dead statues. As a foundation of Pygmalion is seen Karpasia on Cyprus. Adonis sometimes is called Pygmaion too after his grandfather Pygmalion. In turn the name of Pygmalion can be traced back to Pygmaion too. Anyway we have a strong relation to Adonis. And we have found a close interconnection between Pygmalion II and Pygmalion I. Now we come to the coins. Origin of the whole recherche was this coin of Elagabal from Tyre, which has a reverse that has confused me: Coin No.1: Phoenicia, Tyre, Elagabal, AD 218-222 AE 30, 12.34g, 30.2mm, 180° obv. IMP CAES M AV AN - TONINVS AV Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from front, laureate, r. rev. TYRIORVM Male figure, nude, cloak (or animal skin) over extended r. arm, advancing l., chlamys around neck waving r., in his raised l. hand holding transverse spear and an unknown object (shield?); r. behind him 4 stags leaping r., where he possibly is holding the reins; all on a base line. in upper field star, beneath stags murex shell (Gitler/Bijovsky type I) ref. Rouvier VII, p. 80, 2388; BMC Phoenicia p. 277, 408; Babelon ("Les Perses Achemenides") 2244; Mionnet V, 657; not in SNG Copenhagen, SNG UK, SNG Deutschland, SNG Righetti, Lindgren very rare (only 6 ex. known), F, porous pedigree: ex coll. Adrian W. ex FAC Note (FAC): The legend here is TYRIORVM, not COL TYR, because after the revolt of the legio III Gallica and its suppression by Elagabal the status as colonia was transferred to Sidon. FAC has called the male figure Kadmos, son of the Tyrian king Agenor. But Stephenson (Dictionary of Roman Coins) writes about this type of coins: Quadriga of Stags - A first brass of Gordian III. exhibits a car, drawn by four stags, and in which a naked male figure stands, holding in his right arm a garment, and in his left hand a wand. There is a star in the field of the coin and the usual shell-form symbol of Tyre, beneath the fore-legs of the stags. [Vaillant quotes several passages from Nonnus in support of his opinion that the man in the car is meant for the Tyrian Hercules, who, it seems, was amongst other names called Astrochiton, as if the leader of the stars (Dux Astrorum). The Tyrians furnish the chariot of this god of theirs with stags instead of horses, in allusion to the rapidity of his movements. A stag was the emblem of the sun's velocity; and Hercules and the sun, according to Macrobius, was the same.] By the way, the garment over the right arm on my coin looks like a lion's skin, so strengthening the interpretation as Herakles. Thereupon I have checked Macrobius' 'Saturnalia' and in book I, XX he says, that Hercules is the sun. And Nonnus 'Dionysiaka', p. 40, 366-410 celebrates him hymnically as Hercules Astrochiton. But I have never found a source for his claim that stags are a symbol for his rapidity! The solution was found by Charles Rhodes (gordian_guy) of FAC. He has the Tyrian coin of Gordian III, which was described by Stephenson, in his Collection: Coin No. 2: Phoenicia, Tyre, Gordian III, AD 238-244 AE 30, 21.48g, 180° obv. IMP GORDIANVS - PIVS FEL AVG Gordian, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r. rev. C - O - L TVR MET (Description of the seller Uncertain male figure stg. r., holding chlamys and sceptre, on the right side 4 stags, galloping r., beneath the stags murex snail ref. cf. Rouvier 2434 pedigree: ex coll. J. S. Wagner This revers type first appears under Elagabal (Type I) and has been struck for Gordian III, Valerian, Gallienus and Salonina. In contrast to my coin, the coin of Gordian III (Type II, Phase I) has in the lower field an inscription with Phoenician letter (see below), which at first couldn't be explained. This coin type has been published in 1954 by H. Hamburger. The translation from the Phoenician was done by Dr. I Ben Dor and resulted in Bodmelqart. But this translation was incorrect. Robinson in 1997 supposed, that this name should have a reference to king Pygmalion and read PGMLYN. In Gitler/Bijovsky 2002 we finally find the reading PGMLYON! They too have divided these coins in Type I and II, were Type II was further divided in 4 different phases, according to the existence of the Phoenician inscription and the distribution of the attributes on the reverse. So it is not Herakles-Melqart, but Pygmalion = Pu'mayyaton, king of Tyre (here called Pygmalion II)! Sadly not all problems of this coin type are solved. Pygmalion II, king of Tyre, actually was not an example that could be glorified on coins. Because of greed he has killed the husband of Elissa and Dante Alighieri in his 'Comedia Divina' has put him into the purgatorium as example for human greed. A different figure is Pygmalion I, king or sculptor from Cyprus. May be that here both figures are melted, or the Cyprian Pygmalion was transferred to the Tyrian Pygmalion. We know of historical relations between Tyre and Cyprus: - Elissa (Dido) is said to have landed at Cyprus when she fled to North-Africa. A hint that Tyre has turned towards the Western Mediterranean. - In Kition on Cyprus existed a sanctuary of Melqart, the City God of Tyre. Roscher: It is possible that in this Tyrian part of Kypros a king Pygmalion has ruled. At any way it is the proof, that the influence of Tyre has reached to Kypros. This connection between Pygmalion I and Pygmalion II is denied categorically by Schmitz-Evans, but she didn't know these coins. And then the four stags are unexplained. Actually they are symbols for hunting. But either Pygmalion I nor Pygmalion II are connected to hunting. An attempt we find at Gabriella Bijovsky in 'More about Pygmalion from Tyre': In 1950 Hill proposed to identify the male figur with Ousoos the hunter, who, according to Philo of Byblos, was the founder of Tyre. This was affirmed by Mesnik du Buisson in 1965 and Will 1973. Bijovsky refuses this proposal, because Ousoos was indeed a hunter, but above all the founder of Tyre. But that is not depicted on the coins. According to Barnett and Seyrig there are enough reasons to believe that Herakles-Melqart, the main deity of Tyre, has been a hunter too. But on these coins his main attributes are missed: the club and the lion's skin around his neck. The suggestion of Robinson to take the figure just for king Pygmalion of Tyre is not convincing because he was not an appealing figure and he is not known as hunter. Bijovsky proposes to see Pygmalion in context to a local hunter hero, in Syro-Phoenician tradition. This was mentioned already by Will in 1952 and Seyrig 1963, but was not developed further. We do know that Pygmalion is connected to Adonis, who is known as hunter. Aphrodite has fallen in love with him and has protected him on his hunting expeditions. Nevertheless he was killed by a boar and buried near Byblos in Phoenicia, beside a river, bearing his name. Thus he became a local hero of Byblos. Interestingly he was never depicted on coins. But in this way Adonis as well as Pygmalion were directly connected to Cyprus, which at this time indeed was a colony of Tyre. And additionly Pygmalion was one of the several names of Adonis, under which name he was worshipped in Kypros. Hesychios calls Pygmaion the Adonis of the Cyprians. So it is well possible that the Greek myth of Adonis is based on a Phoenician figure of a young mythical hunter. This myth existed in several different local manifestations. If this assumption is correct then the male figure on our coins can be Pygmalion, a syncretistic version of Adonis, depicted as hunter, holding his trophies, 4 stags, with reins, and standing beside a river. History of Literature: We know of several literary adaptations of the Pygmalion stuff. I list some by chance: [1] Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832), Pygmalion - Eine Romanze, 1767 By the way, when Goethe in his Tour of Italy enters Rome he speaks of Pygmalion and Elise, for sure a confusion with Elissa [2] George Bernard Shaw (1856- 1950), Pygmalion, 1913/14 (after Ovid) Here Pygmalion is Henry Higgins, professor of phonetics, and Elissa is the flower girl Eliza Doolittle. Higgins tries to teach Eliza the fine English,so that she can pass as duchess on a garden party. He succeeds, but because Eliza for Higgins is only his work and not an emancipated human being, she separates from him. [3] 'My Fair Lady', Musical after Shaw, 1956, Music: Frederic Loewe, Text: Alan Jay Lerner. I think, the song "It greens so green when Spain's blossoms bloom", is known by all of us. [4] Joseph Weizenbaum (1923-2008), ELIZA, A computer program. Look at the following excursion! History of Art: The story of Pygmalion and Galatea was a favoured subject in paintings and literature. Of the many pictures I have choosen these two: [1] Jean Leon Gerome, Pygmalion and Galatea, 1890-1893, private coll. Gerome was a representative of the Academic Classicism. For the theme Pygmalion and Galatea he created a series of different sculptures and paintings. 1892 he painted a marble group he has created which hereafter served as model for different paintings. The scenes always are playing in his atelier, so that he is seeing himself in the role of Pygmalion. [2] Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), Pygmalion, 1939, today in the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Delvaux was one of the most importat surrealists. This painting is remarkable in that we see a change of roles: Here Pygmalion is the sculpture and is kissed by Galatea. But in contrast to the ancient myth she will not succeed, then on Pygmalion is missed the lower part of his body. Sources: [1] Ovid, Metamorphosen X, 243ff. [2] Vergil, Aeneis I, 340-368 [3] Apollodoros, [4] Nonnos, Dionysakia [5] Macrobius, Saturnalia [6] Dante, Göttliche Komödie, Purgatorium, Canto XX, 103-105 [7] Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Pygmalion [8] Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Italienische Reise [9] G.B.Shaw, Pygmalion, 1913/14 [10] "My Fair Lady", Musical nach Shaw, Music: Frederic Loewe 1956, Text: Alan Jay Lerner (1956) Secondary literature: [1] Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches Mythologisches Lexikon [2] Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie, 1897-1902 [3] Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie [4] Der Kleine Pauly [5] Wikipedia, Pygmalion of Tyre [6] Wikipedia, Pygmalion (mythology) [7] Monika Schmitz-Emans, Literatur und Mythos (lecture), 8. Pygmalion (und Venus) Numismatical literature: [1] Jules Rouvier, Numismatique des Villes de la Phenice [8]: Tyr, 1903/1904 (Google Books) [2] Ernest Charles Francois Babelon, Les Perses Achemenides, les satrapes et les dynasties tributaries de leur empire, Cypre et Phenicie, Paris, 1893 (Google Books) [3] H. Hamburger, A Hoard of Syrian Tetradrachms and Tyrian Bronze Coins from Gush Halav, 1954 (Jstor) [4] M. Robinson, Phoenician Inscriptions on the Late Roman Bronze Coinage of Tyre, Part I - A Coin Depicting Pygmalion, The Numismatic Circular, volume CV, No. 6, July 1997, pp. 199-201 (not available!) [5] Gabriela Bijovsky, More About Pygmalion From Tyre, 2000 (academia.edu) [6] Haim Gitler/Gabriela Bijovsky, The Coins of Pygmalion from Tyre, A Chronological Sequence from Elagabal to Gallienus, 2002 (academia.edu) [7] Alfred Hirt, Bild und Kontext - Eine Annäherung an die tyrische Bronzeprägung des 3. Jhs. n.Chr., Hefte des Archäologischen Seminars der Universität, HASB 21/2009 I want to thank Charles Rhodes (gordian_guy) for solving this intricate riddle! Excursion: Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA Joseph Weizenbaum, born in 1923 in Berlin, emigrated with his family to the USA, where he was professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MITS) and became one of the pioneers of artificiel intelligence (AI). In broad circles he became famous by his computer program ELIZA, named after G.B.Shaws Eliza from his 'Pygmalion'. In later years he became a strong critic of the unconsidered application of computers, caused too by the abuse of his ELIZA program. A problem that is today more acute than formerly. He died 2008 in Gröben near Berlin. ELIZA is an early example for using artificial intelligence for human language. It was written in 1966 in LISP, a typical computer language for artificial intelligence. During a simuilated psychoanalytical session the program imitates a psychoanalyst who is talking with the patient. Weizenbaum has chosen the name ELIZA because Prof. Higgins was a professor of phonetics. His model for the sessions was the method of Carl Rogers. Carl Ransom Rogers (1902-1987) was an important American psychologist, who has developed the so-called "client-centered conversational therapy", a therapy which today belongs to the fund of the ordinary talk therapy but to the pedagogical labour too. In this method the leader of the session doesn't intervene in the trains of thought of the client but causes - by picking up only keywords of the client - the release of more own thoughts. This form of therapy matches perfectly Weizenbaum's programm ELIZA. His program consists essentially of a list of keywords which then lead to stored sentences, consisting of questions, invitations or simply repetitions. If the client mentions for example his mother, ELIZA answers with the invitation "Tell me more of your mother!". There is naturally no understanding or empathy for the personal problems of the clients. It is only a mechanical analysis of the client's sentences and the clever choice of answers which were stored in advance. Here I have an example of a typical "talk", where > means ELIZA and * is always the input of the client: > Hello, I'm ELIZA. * I have problems. > Don't you ever say Hello? * Sorry. Hello! > Apologies are not necessary. * ok. > Tell me more... * I hate my mother. > I see. * Why do you can see that? > We were discussing you, not me. > *** Are we going to Chat? *** > I can't help you without a dialog! And so on and so on. Weizenbaum was shocked when he recognizes that there were psychologists who used his program for the work with their clients, and clients who were using this program for their own therapy, although they were enlightened about the character of ELIZA. This was a further reason for Weizenbaum to change from a renowned specialist of artificial intelligence to one of the main critics of computers, at least insofar that they take over human tasks. In his book "Kurs auf den Eisberg", an allusion to the "Titanic", he writes that nowaday all big computer systems (especially from the governments and military systems) are inscrutable, in particular the mammoth systems which are used to decide about peace and war. Therefore they couldn't be waited like our personal computers. The end is inevitable the dehumanisation of our society. If you look today on I-Phones and similar devices you can see that Weizenbaum was right with his predictions. In January we went to Berlin by train, a trip of 7 hours. But their was no talk possible with the other passengers! All of them were swiping on their displays. And this is called "social network"? That is ridicule! Sources: [1] Joseph Weizenbaum, Die Macht der Computer und die Ohnmacht der Vernunft, Suhrkamp 1978 [2] Joseph Weizenbaum, Kurs auf den Eisberg, Piper 1987 [3] Joseph Weizenbaum, Wer erfindet die Computermythen?, Herder 1993 [4] David Ahl, Creative Computing, July/August 1977 With ELIZA von Steve North in BASIC (MITS 8k), based on one written by Jeff Shrager. Originally 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum written in LISP. Based on the psychoanalytic techniques of Carl Rogers. [5] An emulation, where you can simulate a session with ELIZA, you can find under http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/eliza.php3 Best regards
Bravo.. Such deep researches and detailed historical analyses make us renew our belief that a single coin might reveal new pages of History. I already posted the same coin a few days ago. My search was focused on the possible scene where the stags were running. Tyre was renown traditionally for its racecourse. It's still holding there and visited by tourists. The racecourse was built by the Romans, and many nations along with various colonies used to participate at the horse race. I do remember in my former translations at work, namely at an official tourist office, that the races or competitions at Tyre would involve sometimes other animals than horses. If this is confirmed, then we might suggest that the OP coin might represent the historical racecourse of Tyre. Just a possibility.
Great writing. Great art. And grrrreat coin (in my best Tony the tiger voice)! Thank you so much for sharing this. A very insightful and timely post! I was just reading yesterday of the 35 year old man who married a hologram. I was actually struck by how fascinated I was. At first, when I'd heard of it weeks ago, I scoffed at the man. But then soon found myself cheering for a fellow that had bucked societal norms. You can view it, and learn more about our modern Pygmalions here. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/12/28/man-marries-hologram-anime-character-orig.cnn And to keep it legit here's a pig (hogsmouth) coin my daddio gave me for Xmas:
