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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jochen1, post: 4258464, member: 103829&quot;]Dear Friends of ancient mythology!</p><p><br /></p><p>Even the corona virus should not stop our hobby.</p><p><br /></p><p>I would like to present here an object whose meaning is still not quite clear today. On my coin it was called a &#039;beehive&#039;, which is complete nonsense, as a bee expert who is also historically familiar with beekeeping assured me. But first, the coin. It&#039;s an AE20 from Deultum in Thrace by Maximinus I:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>1st Coin:</b></p><p>Maximinus I 235-238 AD.</p><p>AE 20, 4.79g, 20.11mm, 180</p><p>Av.: IMP MAXIMINVS AVG (Lat.)</p><p>Bust, draped and cuirassed, laurel, n.r.</p><p>Av.: P-C-F-D</p><p>so-called omphalos with point on foundation</p><p>Ref: Yurukova 204; Varbanov 2425; SNG Bulgaria 756-760</p><p>SS, nice green Patina, on rev. trace of excavation</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1085604[/ATTACH]</p><p>Greek <i>omphalos</i> is navel, Latin <i>umbilicus</i>. This picture is only available from Deultum. What is this strange thing? Yurokova calls it a beehive. But that&#039;s nonsense, as we already know. It&#039;s sometimes called a shrine. And the new SNG Bulgaria calls it a well of the &#039;Meta Sudan&#039; type! This is what I researched first, because I have not heard anything of this term before.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>(1) Meta Sudan</b></p><p>New excavations in the 1990th in Colosseum Square brought to light some interesting foundations in the immediate vicinity of the Arch of Constantine. First, the remains of a portico that was part of Nero&#039;s Domus Aurea. The portico ran along the artificial lake, which was later drained and into which the Colosseum was built, and connected the palace on the Velia (where the temple of Venus and Roma now stands) with the valley.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1085605[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>When Nero was dead and the Flavians had takenover power in Rome, most of the Domus Aurea was demolished and the valley was radically transformed. As part of this construction work, a monumental fountain, the Meta Sudans, was also created. The fountain had the shape of a huge cone (hence the name Meta Sudans, &quot;sweating cone&quot;). The height of the cone was 17 meters, its diameter at the base was 7 meters. It stood in a round water basin of 16 meters in diameter. When Mussolini built his imposante Via dell&#039; Imperi (now Via dei Fori Imperiali), the Meta Sudans was levelled. The original appearance of the fountain can be reconstructed from contemporary coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1085606[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b> (2) Baetyl</b></p><p>Baetyls are meteoric stones, like the stone of Emesa of Elagabal, the Baetyl of Sidon or the Kaaba in Mecca.. The shape of these baetyls is sometimes a bit ovoid. Here is a picture of the baetyl of the Pergaean Artemis. What makes it especially interesting is that according to Marvin Tameanko the upper &#039;egg&#039; of this monument or a similar one is apparently depicted on coins, sometimes in a temple. See &quot;Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum collection of Aulock. No. 4759&quot; and &quot;Description des Medailles Antiques, Greques et Romaines, Mionnet, vol.3, no. 93, p. 463&quot; and of course Marvin Tameanko&#039;s own book &quot;Monumental Coins, p.213&quot;.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1085607[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>(3) The Apollonian Omphalos</b></p><p>On a series of Seleucid coins Apollo is depicted sitting on an omphalos. The omphalos is often covered with a net-like wickerwork (<i>Agrenon</i>) as can be seen on this coin. Maybe this is where the name &#039;beehive&#039; comes from.</p><p><br /></p><p><b> 2nd Coin:</b></p><p>Babylonia, Seleukeia ad Tigris, Antiochos I Soter, 324-361 BC</p><p>AR - Tetradrachm, 16.92g, 29.04g, 315</p><p>Seleukeia ad Tigris, 264-263 BC</p><p>Obv.: Head of Antiochos I. with Taenia r.</p><p>Rev.: BAΣIΛEΩΣ - ANTIOΧOV (each from top to bottom)&nbsp;&nbsp; Apollo Delphios, naked, sitting on an omphalos l., chlamys over</p><p>&nbsp;thigh and hanging down over the omphalos hanging holding with his l. hand</p><p>the bow, leaning behind him against the omphalos, and checking arrow, which</p><p>he is holding forward right with tip pointing diagonally downwards</p><p>&nbsp;in left and right field each a monogram</p><p>Ref:: Newell ESM 166, pl. XV, 2; Gülnar 2/2928, pl. 87; SC. 379, 6a</p><p>VF</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1085608[/ATTACH]</p><p>So the Omphalos has a relationship to Apollo and therefore to Delphi. It is the seat of the prophet and is also called the Delphic Omphalos. It is said to stand at the place where the eagles met, which Zeus had sent from the extreme east and extreme west. Therefore, this place was considered the center of the world. Below it is said to be the tomb of Dionysus. The omphalos of Asclepius is probably a transmission.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Note:</b></p><p>Gülnar = Gülnar hoard, found 1980, now called Meydancikkale hoard.</p><p><br /></p><p><b> (4) The &quot;navel of the world&quot;</b></p><p>In later times the meaning of the navel was extended into the esoteric. Especially by the Orphans. In this time there are also transitions to the so-called world egg, which for example reappears in modern times in pictures by Salvadore Dali. It is said to contain all secrets of the cosmos. It also played an important role in hermeneutics and alchemy in the Middle Ages.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1085609[/ATTACH]</p><p>Salvadore Dali, O Ovo Filosofico, 1943</p><p><br /></p><p><b>(5) Back to the facts</b></p><p>Now what does the &#039;Kleiner Pauly&#039; say to this navel? Omphalos, = navel, hump. It is an ovoid or beehive-shaped cairn. uncertain meaning; sometimes depicted with bird attributes and covered with net-like wickerwork. The best known example is the Delphic Omphalos, an oracle seat belonging first to Gaia, then to Apollo; according to the <i>Ninnion-Pinax </i>it is also represented in the sanctuary of the Earth Mother of Eleusis. Replicas of the original omphalos were found in Delphi. Today the Delphic omphalos is no longer regarded as a meteorite object of the Aniconian stone cult, but as a pre-Hellenic sacrificial monument to the earth goddess in synthesis of <i>tymbos </i>(= vaulted tomb) and altar (for chthonic blood casts). Concepts of the earth navel are secondary; attempts to classify it in oriental symbolic references are questionable; a connection with Aegean, Near Eastern or Celtic stone formations of similar form, interpretation within the framework of fertility symbolism remains controversial. The omphalos which is today in Delphi is a Hellenistic copy after an archaic stone model. In ancient times it was crowned by 2 golden eagles (M. Andronicos, Delphes, Athenes, Ekdotike Athenon, 1998, p. 49)</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1085610[/ATTACH]</p><p>Navel of today (Rama, Wikipedia)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Note:</b></p><p>The <i>Ninnion-Pinax </i>is an ancient clay tablet discovered in Eleusis in 1895. It is covered with paintings depicting scenes of the Eleusinian mysteries. The original is in the Archaeological Museum in Athens.</p><p><br /></p><p>Best regards[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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