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Message:: [QUOTE="Jochen1, post: 3405701, member: 103829"]Dear Friends of ancient mythology! Recently (actually it was some years before!) I got this nice tetradrachm of Tigranes II. This should be the cause to write an article about the so-called Tyche of Antioch. I hope something will be new for you! 1st coin:Kingdom of Armenia, Tigranes II, 95-56 BCAR - tetradrachm, 16.68g, 27.18mm, 345°struck in Antiochia ad Orontemobv. Bust of Tigranes II, wearing Armenian tiara, r.; tiara ornamented with eight-pointed star between two eagles, decorated with 5 beaded pyramidal pointsrev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ - TIΓPANOVTyche of Antioch in long garment and with veil, wearing mural crown, std. r. on rock,resting with r. ellbow on r. knee and holding in r. hand long Palm branch; stg. with r. foot on shoulder of rivergod Orontes, who swims below her r; beneath wavesin r. field and left below on rock a monogramall within laurel-wreathref. Bedoukian 17[ATTACH=full]904316[/ATTACH]This is one of the first depictions of this famous statue. 2nd coin:Syria, Seleukis and Pieria, Antiochia ad Orontem, Augustus, 27 BC - AD 14AR - tetradrachm, 14.99g, 26.51mm, 15°struck 2-1 BC. (Year 30 of Actian era)obv. KAIΣAPOΣ ΣE - BAΣTOY (clockwise, starting upper r.)laureate head r.rev. ETOYΣ - L - NIKHΣ (Year 30 of the victory)The depiction is nearly identical with the depiction on the tetradrachm of Tigranes!In field one below the other 2 monograms, in front of the upper one IΓ (= 13)ref.: Prieur 555; RPC 4156; Wruck 7[ATTACH=full]904317[/ATTACH]Note:The upper monogramm can be read as VΠA = COS, so its meaning is COS XIIIThe lower one could be ANT AVΓ. 3rd coin:Justinus I, AD 518-527AE - AE 5 (pentanummion), 1.46g, 11.73mm, 180°Antiochiaobv. [DN IVSTINVS P P AV]Bust, draped and cuirassed, pearl-diademed, r.rev. Tyche of Antioch, wearing mural crown, std. l. in shrine; below her river-god Orontesin l. field retrograde Eref. DOC 57; MIBE 67; BNP 11-17; Berk 100; Hahn 67; Sear 111[ATTACH=full]904318[/ATTACH]This is the last type showing a classic pagane motive. If you consider that this motive was struck for the first time under Tigranes II now 600 years of Hellenistic culture have ended. It's remarkable nevertheless that it was the Antiochene Tyche. Some general notes on Tyche:The etymology of Tyche is clear. It belongs to Greek τυνχανειν = to happen accidently. So its meaning is chance, fortune but misfortune too. Tyche was not known by Homer. She doesn't occur in his epics. And there is little mythology of her. Hesiod claims that she was one of the daughters of Okeanos, other (f.e. Pindar) suggest that Zeus has been her father. But that doesn't matter anything. She was seen as goddess not before the great families of deities have been established. Therefore there is no genealogy. But when the relevance of the old gods was decreasing she was playing an increasing important role. Her character is similar to that of Nemesis or Themis. Originally she was seen as spirit, who ruled the world blindly, because she brought misfortune to good and wise men, and fortune to fools and bad men. This unjust and senseless role was taken up by the Attic comedies. Certainly this must be seen in connection with the unsure times and the depletion of the conservative belief in the old gods. At first she was an ambivalente deity, later she leant towards a better meaning, especially as Tyche Agathos, the good Tyche. In the first time she has had no cults. But in Hellenism her cult spreads, especially in Thebes, Athens, Megara and Megalopolis. Libanios describes the Tychaion of Alexandria as the most gorgeous of the entire Hellenistic world. She was seen too as personal Tyche, who determines the fate of her owner, like Frederic the Great demanded "fortune" from his generals. She is depicted holding a rudder as arbiter of the world, with cornucopiae, symbol of wealth or with a sphere as sign of uncertainty. Often she was wearing a mural crown and thereby seen as city-goddess. In Rome she was seen almost equivalent to Fortuna, where numerous temples were built for her, the first ones by Servius Tullius in the regio I. Famous was the temple in Antium where 2 Fortunae were worshipped simultaneously. History of Art:In 1780 a small marble statue was found in Rome on a manor of the Barberini family at the Via Latina outside of the Porta S. Giovanni. This statue was recognized as Tyche and after a first restauration by Paolo Cavaceppi sold in 1781 to the Vatican.[ATTACH=full]904324[/ATTACH]Pic of the statue before the restauration. The restaurated statue today stands in the Galleria dei Candelabri in the Musei Vaticani. It is dated back to the time of Trajan and its height is 88cm. 10 years later, AD 1790, Ennio Quirino Visconto, son of Giambattista Visconto, who was successor of Winckelmann as Papal Supervisor of the Roman antiquities, discovered this statuette in a niche of the Galleria. Based on the mention by Pausanias VI.2, 6 and especially by the depictions on the coinage of Antioch, he identified it as Tyche of Antioch. Thereby he pointed out the legends on coins of Philadelphia TYXH FILADELFEWN.[ATTACH=full]904323[/ATTACH]Drawing of Visconti, AD 1790 The two most important ancient sources are:(1) Pausanias, Perihegesis, 6.2, 6:"...but Timosthenes (was created) by Eutychides from Sikyon, who has learned at Lysippos. This Eutychides has made a cult statue of Tyche too for the Syrians at the Orontes, which was held in high esteem."Here already Pausanias made the mistake of calling this statue Tyche!and(2) Malalas, Chronographia 8, 201:Malalas was a late antique historian, born c. AD 490 in Antioch, later (from AD 530) working in Constantinopolis. He wrote a history of the world in 18 volumes, beginning with the creation of the world until shortly before the death of Justinian (AD 565). In it he describes the erection of statues of Tyche in Antioch by Seleukos I and Trajan. At both occasions a maid should have been sacrificed, today seen as later probably Christian insertions."...he (Seleukos I) had erected a bronze statue of the sacrificed maid (Emathia) as Tyche for the city across the river (Orontes) (seated) and made an offering immediately for the maid.""And the theatre of Antioch, which was uncompleted, he (Trajan) completed by erecting over four columns in the theatre in the centre of the nymphaeum of the proskenion a gilded bronze statue of the sacrificed maid (Kalliope), who is sitting above the river Orontes and is wreathed by the kings Seleukos I and Antiochos I, for the fortune of this city." The original statue probably was endowed by Seleukos I Nikator shortly after the founding of Antioch in 300 BC and consecrated in 296. Eutychides was a Greek sculptor from Sikyon regarded as scholar of Lysippos. Sadly there is none of his works preserved. Wether there actually have been different statues or groups as Malalas has written is doubtful. Anyway the famous original statue of Eutychides is not preserved, it probably was destroyed by an earth-quake in the 6th century AD. In ancient times transportable bronze miniature copies of the Antiochene statue were popular. They were produced in series by special handicraft businesses with the aid of reproduction copies (M. Meyer). Description of the Statue:The original statue probably was made of bronze because of the large movements of the river-god's arms and the assumed colossal size of the figure. The dating into the years direct after the founding of the city corresponds with Plinius, who puts the flourishing time of Eutychides into the 121th Olympiad (296-293 BC). It was a female sitting figure in chiton and mantle, wearing a mural crown, std. r. with crossed legs on a rock. Her left hand is resting on the rock and with the right hand she is holding grain-ears. Her right foot is placed on the shoulder of the river-god swimming below her. This is the earliest Greek depiction of a mural crown! Originally the mural crown comes from the Asian Astarte and was adopted by the Greek art not before the 4th/3rd century BC. The copy in the Vatican differs significantly from the recorded description. This is true especially for chiton and mantle, so that Messerschmidt in 2003 has doubted the ascription to Eutychides. But an ancient beholder would have surely recognized the Roman copy as the Tyche of Antioch. Why the copyist has deviated so much is unknown. Interpretation:Marion Meyer has realized that the statue is not Tyche (Fortuna), but the personification of the city of Antioch! Here are her arguments:We have 3 possible interpretations:(1) It is the personification of the city, the city-goddess(2) It is a new kind of deity, a guardian deity for the city, probably because in the early hellenism doubts arose about the power of the established deities.(3) It is Tyche, the goddess of fortune A. Furtwängler writes: Because the mural crown comes from the Asian Astarte, this goddess is the Greek answer in her function as guardian of the city. B. Fehr however thinks, that there was no melting of Greek and indigene elements in the Seleucid Empire. The focus was more on segregation than integration. The concept could be bilingual, especially by the depicted body language. The Greek could have seen Tyche. The crossed legs, the turned upper body and head would represent the wandering and arbitrary character of Tyche, with a touch of Aphrodite. The local inhabitant in contrast has seen, by the dominating role towards the river-god too, the 'Great Mother'. The mural crown was the symbol for the fortified city for both. And here is M. Meyer: To take the goddess of fortune in her fickleness as symbol for the city after the founding is not convincing. To be Tyche Agathos the cornucopiae is missing. But one should mention the geography of Antioch: The river-god is by common accord the river Orontes. Antioch was situated on its left bank. The rock on which the deity is seated is Silpios, the city mountain of Antioch. The situation of Antioch was dangerous. Especially at the time of snowmelt when torrents coming down the hills. The foot on the river-god symbolizes that the goddess has everything under control. The land itself is fertile, the harvest is safe, therefore the grain-ears in her hand. The goddess is mistress over the natural forces and in the same moment the beneficiary of nature. So there is every indication that the figure is Antioch itself, the personification of the city! Thus naming her Tyche of Antioch is equally wrong as naming the bull of Julian II Apis bull! Soon this statue was copied by Seleukeia. As goddess of fortune with cornucopiae she is found first under Demetrios I. Then under the usurper Alexander Balas and so forth. I have attached:(1) A pic of the unrestaurated marble statue of the Vatican, the Roman copy from the time of  Trajan. The copy was completed by Paolo Cavaceppi 1781 and by Michele Ilari 1819: Head, left hand, right forearm with grain-ears, forward section of right foot, and arms of the river-god.(2) Drawing of Visconti, done after restauration.The pic of the restaurated statue in the Galleria dei Candelabri of the Musei Vaticani in Rome can be found everywhere in the web. Sources:(1) Pausanias, Periegesis Literature:(1) E.Q.Visconti, Il museo Pio Clementino III., Milano 1790(2) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon(3) Der Kleine Pauly(4) Paul Z. Bedoukian, Coinage of the Artaxiads of Armenia, 1978(5) Marion Meyer: Personifikation der Stadt Antiochia, in: Bernd Funck, Hellenismus:Beiträge zur Erforschung von Akkulturation und politischer Ordnung im Hellenismus, 1996, S.243-254 (at googlebook)(6) Marion Meyer, Die Personifikation der Stadt Antiocheia. Ein neues Bild für eine neue Gottheit, 2006(7) Text und Skulptur: Berühmte Bildhauer und Bronzegießer der Antike in Wort undBild. Ausstellung in der Abguss-Sammlung Antiker Plastik Berlin, Sascha Kansteiner, Lauri Lehmann, Bernd Seidensticker(8) Wolfgang Messerschmidt, Prosopopoiia, 2003(9) Tobias Dohrn, Die Tyche von Antiochia, 1960 Online-Sources:(1) Andrea Peine, Agathe Tyche im Spiegel der griechischen und römischen Plastik.Untersuchungen klassischer Statuentypen und ihre kaiserzeitliche Rezeption, 1998(Dissertation)(2) <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/www.arachne.uni-koeln.de" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/www.arachne.uni-koeln.de">www.arachne.uni-koeln.de</a>(3) <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/www.zeno.org/Meyers-1905" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/www.zeno.org/Meyers-1905">www.zeno.org/Meyers-1905</a> (drawing by Visconti) Best regards[/QUOTE]

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