Dear Friends! Today I want to share a wonderful and very rare coin, showing Silen with the infant Dionysos on his knees. Here is the "story behind the coin". As usually this article is full with all kinds of information which I found interesting. The Coin: Lydia, Sardeis, pseudo-autonomous, 2nd century BC AE 22, 5.81g, 21.99mm, 165° obv. CAPΔIA - NΩN Head of Dionysos, wearing ivy-wreath, l. rev. CAPΔIANΩN Silen, bearded, nude, std. r. on basket, holding in r. hand kantharos and with l. hand infant Dionysos std. l. on his knees, stretching arms to him ref. a) Lorenz Beger Thes. Brand. Select. I (1696!), p. 501, fig. I b) Mionnet supplement (1835), no. 445 (cites Beger, misunderstands Dionysos as "female head") c) Münchner Denkschrift Philol. 1, Tf. 4, 8 (cited by K.O.Müller, Handbuch der Kunst der Archaeologie, 1848) d) not in von Aulock, Copenhagen, BMC, Lindgren, Imhoof Lydien Std., Righetti, Isegrim very rare, F+, very delicate sand patina Pedigree: ex Hauck&Aufhäuser Note: Mauseus (from FAC) succeeded in finding this type in Lorenz Beger's "Thesaurus Brandenburgicus selectus, 1696-1701". Hence this is may oldest reference at all. Mionnet describes this coin in his Supplement 1835 but calls the head of Dionysos in error "head of woman". Actually excusable because the young Dionysos really looks very female. The basket probably is a cista mystica, which is related to Dionysos too. Lorenz Beger (1653-1705), successor of the great numismatist Ezechiel Spanheim, was an important early German numismatist. His main work "Thesaurus Brandenburgicus selectus" was the first catalogue of a German royal collection of antiquities. This coin was by the seller called 'Dionysos with child', in error, because this motive is mythological unknown. Who should be the child? And the kanthoros is known as attribut for Silen too, e.g. on tetradrachms of Naxos/Sicily or obols from Thasos. Furthermore the figure is too muscular for Dionysos. The object on which Silen is seated is not well defined. I vote for a cista mystica - especially because of the structure of the surface. Such a cista you can find besides Silen on a frieze of a sarcophagus showing the wedding of Dionysos and Ariadne. It belongs to the cult of Dionysos. Mythology: Origin: In the Greek mythology Silen or Silenos is the son of Pan, god of shepherds, or Hermes, and a nymph. In Nysa at the river Meander (often confused with an island Nysa in Libya) he was nursed by nymphs and later became king of Nysa. He was married with Nais. From nymphs he had a great number of sons, Silens or Seilenoi, all looking like him: a composite being of man and horse, but looking different than a Centaur: Silen had a snub nose and the tail, the hooves and the ears of a horse. Relation to Dionysos: Hermes has brought the infant Dionysos to Silen to educate him. So Silen in Nysa became the teacher of Dionysos and has taught him all known sciences. Silen was teacher not only of Dionysos, but for Olympos or Maron too. Eventually this is a relic of his role as a kind of good puck as he was hold in Athens. Later together with the Maenads he was the companion of Dionysos on his wars and traits (thiasos). It was said that Silen almost always was drunk and had problems with the truth. Nevertheless he was praised for his worldly wisdom, which however was biased heavily pessimistic, and for his divinatory skills. Silen before Midas: When Dionysos once was tracking from Thrace to Boeotia with his wild entourage Silen fell behind and was found drunk by gardeners of king Midas in his rose gardens. He was bound and brought before the king. For five days Silen told Midas wondrous tales of a country in the West beyond the Okeanos. It was decorated with gorgeous cities and populated with huge, happy and long-living inhabitants. And it was famous for its exemplary legal system. Once they have undertaken a big expedition to the Hyperboreans. But when they were told that this country was the best of the Old World they returned heavily disappointed. Then Silen told about an horrible water whirl at the border of the world. In its vicinity two rivers were flowing with two different kinds of fruits at their banks. The fruits of the first tree made the humans sad, so that they must weep and moan and would slowly but inexorably pine away. The fruits of the other tree made young again even old men. They developed back through youth to infancy and then vanished at all. Five days Midas listened eagerly to his narrations and then asked him what the best was for men. Only after longer urging Silen answered: "The best thing for a man is not to be born, and if already born, to die as soon as possible." Dionysos was afraid of the whereabouts of his old teacher and sent a messenger to Midas to ask how much he would demand for releasing Silen. Midas was predicted to became fabulous wealthy and so he asked for the gift that all that he touched with his hands changed to gold. That happened immediately, but dishes and drinks changed to gold too, so that Midas threatened to die of starvation or of thirst. Midas begged Dionysos for help and Dionysos commanded him to go to the river Paktolos near the Tmolos mountain and to have a wash. So Midas was freed from this disastrous gift. But the Paktolos river is famous for the gold of its sands until today. Later Midas was adopted by king Gordios of Phrygia and after his death became king of Phrygia himself. Silen and the Gigantomachia: Silen, riding on his ass, was together with Dionysos participant in the Gigantomachia. By the awful crying of his old pack donkey he has frightened the Giants. They had never heard such crying and thought that the Gods had created a new unknown beast and sent against them. They fled. It is said that he has killed Enkelados too. But this whole myth is a later Alexandrian invention, in which Silen was involved by his connection to Dionysos. Background: Silen and Satyr can't be separated (Pauly). The etymology is non-Greek. We have only few literarily material, more archaeological and visual art. Homer doesn't know them. Both are composed beings of man and horse, but in contrast to Centaurs more human-like. Originally Silen was an autonomous demon, without any connection to Dionysos, a serious, wise, music loving god of the forest, and like all demons he could do good and evil. Often they are found in plural, and they owned a secret knowledge, deep wisdom and experience. They had a relation to springs and had given hooves because of that because horses in Greek mythology were connected to springs too. So they could cause a spring by beating with their hooves. Some Silens are known by their names: Silen, Marsyas, Maron (called too son of Dionysos, see Euripides), Nysos (equated with Silen too), Astraios (a son of Silen), Sabakchos (who is said to have laid hands on Hera) and others. Their female antagonists were the Nymphs, whom they often stalked. Probably they were originated from Northern Greece, but were known elsewhere too, in Phrygia probably first by Marsyas, but Silens were never river-gods. Midas came from Macedonia and is transferred later to Phrygia. Coessential demons are known from several locations under different names. The Satyroi came from the Peleponnesos and the satyr play probably came to Athens from there. The connection to Dionysos is secondary. But thereby they were connected to wine and drunkenness and changed from the nativ demonic creatures of nature to the ridiculous figures we know today. They were included in the entourage of the god and silly and contemptible features emerged. In this process the satyr play - which was connected with the Dionysos cult - had big influence. As Papposilen he appeared as father of the satyr chorus. Here we have the origin of the senile baldheaded Silen from the 5th century BC. We know that Socrates was called Silen and Satyr too. Papposilen was the oldest and most serene of them and became the educator of Dionysos, at first in Sophokles' Dionysiskos. The oldest depiction we find on a vase painting in the Museo Gregoriano: Hermes hands over the infant Dionysos to Papposilen. Alexandrinian are the inventions of Nonnos giving him the sons Maron, Astraios and Leneus. Similarly horns and ram-feet are later additions and - complety un-Hellenic - taken over from Pan. That Silen should be a son of Hermes or Pan from a nymph stems from Servius to Vergil's Buc. 6, 13 and lacks any origin. According to Pausanias Silens have been mortal. Graves should have be seen in the country of Hebrews and in Pergamon. Cults are barely known. There was a temple in Elis where Methe (drunkenness) presents a cup of wine to him. Usually he was worshipped together with Dionysos, who was said to have worn an amethyst against drunkenness! Some notes on the Tales of Silen before Midas: The first story, told by Aelian in his Varia Historia, resembles strongly Solon's story about Atlantis. Why this story was ascribed to the drunken Silen we can read at Plutarch. Solon has undertaken several journeys to Asia Minor and Egypt. According to Plutarch Solon has believed the story about Atlantis which he has heard in Egypt and also used for an epic poem. Aelian seems to have known a comedy of Thespis in which Thespis has mocked about the utopian lies of Solon and has depicted Solon as restless wandering Silen. The philosophical part of the story has passed down by Aristoteles (Eudemos, fgr.44) and Cicero (Tusculanae disputationes I, 114f.). "Miserable ephemeral race of hardship and distress, how you can force me to tell you that would better for you not to be heard. Then only in unawareness of your own misery your life can elapse without suffering." And then culminates in the famous sentence: "The best of all is unreachable for you at all: not to be born, not to be, to be nothing. But for you - once you were born -the next best is, to die as soon as possible." This extremely pessimistic sentence we have expected to find rather at one of the Seven Wises than at Silen. But this sentence is evidence for his deep wisdom. Later it was adopted by many philosophers, e.g. Arthur Schopenhauer. Alfred Polgar, the famous Austrian writer and critic, has turned this sentence into ridicule: "Not to be born is the best, says the wise. But who ever has this luck? To whom ever happens that? Under hundreds of thousands barely one." Note: The term 'satire' previously was ascribed to Satyr in error (hence the older writing satyra), especially to the ram-leaps of the Attic tragedy. Actually it cames from Lat. satira in the term 'satura lanx' = bowl filled with fruits. History of Art: In archaic art Silens were depicted often ithyphallic, with thick heads and awkward, e.g. on Chalkidic vases, and often together with nymphs. On numerous Attic vases they became - despite all animal shape - more graceful and human. Here they are already affiliated to Dionysos and subordinated. The Silen no more is the autonomous demon of archaic times. We see him in the Dionysian Thiasos with wine, musik and dance. They are often in company with donkeys and mules, possibly a very old connection. The ass's ears are a typical attribut. During the so-called Severe Style, as we see at Epiktetos or on the cup of Brygos, to name only few, the depiction under the influence of the satyr play was developed to grotesqueness. In the following time of the Beautiful Style the Silens and Satyrs became under the influence of Phidias noble, gentle and serene men. Their common attribut now is the thyrsos which was taken from the Menads. They are playing double flute or lyra. Two different types developed: A more youthful Silen and an older, senile one who deserves a walking stick. Here originates the allocation of the role of Dionysos' teacher as it is shown on the - already mentioned - nice vase painting of the Museo Gregoriano, where Silen is seated on a rock and Hermes hands over the infant Dionysos to him. Among the mythological scenes we find depictions of the Marsyas myth and the myth were Silen was captured by Midas. Lysippos then has created a new type in his group with the infant Dionysos. He accentuates the fatherly, clement and wise. Here Silen resembles more a poet or a philosopher. His body is muscular and powerful. We find no flabbiness. Only a slight fullness of his belly points to the gourmand. This depiction we find obviously on my coin! In Hellenistic times he was a favoured theme on sarcophaguses - and here especially the depiction of the wedding of Dionysos and Ariadne - and as fountain figure, also apotropaic. In Baroque this theme has been picked up again, f.e. by Anthonis van Dyck and Peter-Paul Rubens. A modern sculpture we know from Alfred Hrdlicka. I have added (1) the pic 'Satyr with Flute'. Tondo of an Attic red-figured bowl of Epiktetos (signed), 520-500 BC, Vulci. Today in the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris. (2) A pic of the statue 'Silen with infant Dionysos' from the Louvre/Paris. Found in 16th century AD in the gardens of Sallust and belonging to the coll. Borghese until the French under Napoleon take it to Paris. Possibly this statue is the Silen from Porticus Octavia, mentioned by Plinius (n.h. 36, 4, 8). Probably this is a Roman copy of Lysipp's statue (310-300 BC) (3) A pic of the painting 'The drunken Silen', AD 1616/17, from Peter Paul Rubens (AD 1577-1640), today in Alte Pinakothek in München/Germany. We see a humanistic interpreted scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses. This painting once hung in the house of the artist. Sources: (1) Herodot, Histories (2) Ovid, Metamorphoses (3) Vergil, Ecloges (VI) Literature: (1) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon (2) Roscher, Mythologie der Griechen und Römer (3) Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen (4) Robert Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie (5) Der Kleine Pauly Online: (1) Wikipedia (2) http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/beger1696ga (3) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_Beger Best regards
