Dear Friends of ancient mythology! Here I want to share one of my nicest coins. I have put it on the cover of my book "Münzen und antike Mythologie". The coin: Lydia, Maionia, Marcus Aurelius AD 161-180 AE 35, 24.70g, 0° struck under Quintus, 1st archon for the second time obv. AVT KAIC - ANTWNΩINOC AVP Laureate head r. rev. EΠI KVEINTOV B APX A MAIONIΩN Hades, in himation waving in the wind, standing r. in quadriga rushing r., holding reins in l. hand, head l., holding with r.hand resisting Persephone, extending her arms in distress; under the horses her basket with flowers, above all Eros flying l. ref. SNG von Aulock 3018 Rare, about VF, two flan cracks, but beautiful blue-green patina of the fields in contrary to the figures Pedigree: ex coll. Burnstein ex Auction Peus #366, AD 2000 This coin I have purchased not because of the obverse but because of the interesting rev. motive. It shows the Rape of Persephone. This motive was picked up often by the painting and the sculpture. I remind here of the famous sculpture of Bernini in the Villa Borghese in Rome and of the paintings of Rembrandt, Rubens and Dell'Abate to name only some of them. Mythology: Hades fall in love with Persephone, daughter of Demeter, and begged Zeus for permission to marry her. Zeus was afraid of offending his brother but was aware too that Demeter was never forgiving him if Persephone was banned into the underworld forever. So Zeus answered ambiguous that he can't affirm and can't deny his request. That encouraged Hades to rape Persephone when she was picking flowers in a meadow and to abduct her in his by horses drawn cart into the underworld. 9 days Demeter was seeking her daughter and was calling her vainly. Only Hekate gave her an advice but without much help. On the 10th day she came to king Keleus in Eleusis. There Triptolemos was herding his father's cattle. He gave her the desired information: When his brothers Eumolpos and Ebuleus were herding their sheep and their pigs a black cart has suddenly appeared whose driver has entwined a crying maid. With this evidence in hand Demeter called Hekate and both forced Helios who see all to concede that Hades was the kidnapper. Demeter was so disgusted that she interdicted all trees and plants to bare fruits so that all human beings should die. Thus Zeus was obliged to send Hermes to Hades with the message that all were doomed if Kore - another name of Persephone - was not given back. So Hades was pressed to give Kore back with the condition however that she never has eaten from the food of the deads. Because she affirmed that Hermes should bring her back in his cart into the world above. Askalaphos however, a gardener of Hades, has seen that she has eaten seven seeds of a pomegranate, and so Hades command him to sit on the back of Hermes' cart. Demeter was full of delight when she could welcome her daughter in Eleusis. But when she heard of the pomegranate she fell in deeper mourning than before and renewed her curse over the earth. Finally Zeus could convince his mother Rhea to find a solution. And so it looks: For 3 months each year Kore should be with Hades as queen of the underworld with the title Persephone, and the other 9 months with Demeter in the world above. Hekate should be aware of the compliance of this agreement. Given that Demeter decided to return home and cancel her curse. Before she founded in Eleusis the famous mysteries and teached Triptolemos, Eumolpos and Keleus in her worshipping. The traitor Askalaphos was enclosed in a burrow and then turned into an owl after he was freed by Herakles. Background: In Latin she is always called Proserpina. This goddess was worshipped in Rome since 249 BC together with Dis Pater in Secular Games. But the derivation of her name from Persephone is erroneous. She was responsible only for 'bellum prospere geri posse' in the Secular Games. She has nothing to deal with the greek Persephone. Whenever Latin poets are speeking from Proserpina there is always meant the greek Persephone. She will be known in Italy since c.500 BC. Persephone was the greek goddess of the underworld and the wife of Hades. But as often in greek deities her history goes far into the past. Variants of her name in Attic, Thessalic, Laconic and Locric let assume a pre-Hellenic origin. So she is ethymological related to the semitic death goddess Anat, to Persaeis (another name of Hekate), and to the Etruscan death daimon phersu (from which the word 'person' is originated). That is an argument for the theory of some scholars that the Etruscan came from Maionia, the Homeric name of Lydia. Mycenean her name was Pe-re-sa, in Linear B there is the name pe-re-ja, from which Aphrodite is derived. She was at first a double goddess Demeter and Kore/Persephone. Not until Hesiod Kore became the daughter of Demeter. These double goddesses are known too in Lydian (Lametrus and Artemis), in Umbrian as Torsa Prestota Cerfia and in Oscan as Ammai Kerriiai and Futrei Kerriiai. In Messapian there were the two goddesses Damatira/Doimata and Grahis/Graiva, which means old wife in the sense of Earth Mother. Following Kerenyi the Rape of Kore so goes back into the 3rd millenium BC! The motive of picking flowers and the role of the fruit (pomegranata) are Minoan-Mediterranean symbolism. It points to a pre-Hellenic drama of vegetation. The disappearance and reappearance of Kore flows into mystic affected agrar-chthonic solemnisations, allusions to the existential phenomena of death, marriage and fecundation. In classic times important roles were played by the Greek Mysteries in Eleusis, Messenia, in Graecia Magna and in Sicily, which had strong orphic-dionysiac influences. Kore lived on in late-hellenestic times in the Mysteries of Isis, her other side, the original erinnyen-like connected with Hekate-Artemis-Selene was saved in the Orphic and went over into the liturgy of the syncretistic Papyri Graecae Magicae. I have added the pic of the marble sculpture of Bernini from the Villa Borghese in Rom, AD 1612-1622, that shows this rape in a different conception: Sources: (1) Ovid, Metamorphoses Literature: (1) Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen (2) Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie (3) Der kleine Pauly Online Sources: (1) Wikipedia (2) www.galleriaborghese.it Best regards
What a spectacular example of the type! In December I picked up a bargain version of that reverse, a duplicate consigned to AMCC 1 by @zumbly. MACEDON, Stobi. Caracalla (198-217) AE 23.6 mm, 5.8 gm Obv: M AVR ANTONINV AG; laureate and cuirassed bust right Rev: MV-N-I-CIP STOBE; Hades in galloping quadriga right, carrying off struggling Persephone Ref: AMNG III 12 var. (bust seen from front); Varbanov 4052 (R5, same dies)
Very nice @Jochen ...and thanks for the write-up. PERSEPHONE SICILY Kentoripai Æ Hexas 16mm 3.0g 344-336 BCE Persephone r grain ear plow w bird two pellets Calciati III BMC Sicily 12ff Sicily Syracuse Hieron II 275-269 BC AE 15 Persephone Bull RIGHTRare
The Abduction of Persephone. LYDIA, Nysa. After 133 BC. Æ (18mm, 5.78 gm, 10h). Obv: Head of Persephone right, poppy behind neck. Square countermark on nose. Rev: Hades in galloping quadriga right, carrying off struggling Persephone. Flower basket falling left from hands of Persephone. SNG Copenhagen 306; BMC Lydia 16.
Wonderful coin! One of my favorite reverse types. PHRYGIA, Hierapolis. Pseudo-autonomous civic issue AE29. 12.36g, 29.1mm. PHRYGIA, Hierapolis, circa AD 2nd-3rd centuries. RPC Online 2045; SNG Cop 428. O: IЄPAΠOΛЄI-TΩN, head of youthful Dionysos right, wearing ivy wreath. R: The Abduction of Persephone: Hades in galloping quadriga right, carrying off struggling Persephone. The scene, from a mural in a Macedonian royal tomb (painted by Nicomachus of Thebes between 360-330 BC?)
A valley near Nysa was the site where according to the myth the abduction has been happened. Lydia, Nysa, Caracalla, AD 198-217 AE 23, 6.62g, 22.96mm, 180° obv. AVT [K M] - AVR [CE] ANTΩNINOC Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r. rev. NYCA - EΩN Kore/Persephone, clad in long chiton and peplos, head dropped, stg. l., holding in r. hand long knotted staff (scepter?), with lowered l. hand holding garment at her hip. ref. SNG von Aulock 3048 (rev. only); SNG von Aulock 3048 (rev. only); SNG Copenhagen -; BMC -; probably unpublished very rare, VF, green patina
Jochen, Great score ! Obviously you're a serious student of ancient mythology. The Rape of Persephone made a serious impact on the ancient Romans since it is depicted so many different times on Roman & provincial coinage. Since Marcus Aurelius was a highly educated emperor it seem appropriate to see this theme on one of his coins .
Roman provincial AE 21 of Julia Soaemias from Sebaste in Samaria, Rosenberger 34 (BMC 18). The reverse depicts Pluto/Hades in galloping quadriga right abducting Persephone, Eros above. Unfortunately, the flans for this issue are typically too small for the reverse design and Pluto and Persephone are off the flan.
