Dear Friends of ancient mythology! Here I want to tell something about Tyros. The Coin: Phoenicia, Tyre, Elagabal AD 218-22 AE 27, 11.71g Obv.: IMP CAES M AN - TONINVS AVG Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r. Rev.: TV - RI - O - RVM Two baetylic stones (the so-called 'Ambrosial rocks'), each standing on a base, between them Holy Oil-tree in ex: dog of Herakles, walking r., finding Murex Shell Ref.: SNG Rughetti 2344; BMC Phoenicia, pl. XLIV, 7 and p.cxli, 2, citing a spec. from Berlin rare, F Mythology: The rev. of this coin refers to the founder myth of Tyre. It is reported in the 'Dionysiaka' by Nonnos of Panopolis. Here the Tyrian Herakles Astrochiton appears, a Light God and fire master in a star cloak on whose altar the thousand year old Phoenix is burning himself and then regenerated resurges again. This god reports of the 'Ambrosial rocks', which are floating on the sea. Between them entwined by a snake a mighty oil-tree was growing with an eagle which lives on its branches in an eyrie. A gorgeous bowl was there too - a precursor of the Holy Grail. All was enbedded in fire which didn't burn the branches or leafs. It is told of an oracle which commanded the first man on earth to built a ship, go to the floating rocks, and capture the eagle and sacrifice him. So he did. After that the two rocks grew together, stranded at the beach of Phoenicia, and Tyre was founded on the rocks. The scene on the rev. below the rocks alludes to the discovery of the purple. When the city god Melqart once was chasing the nymph Tyros his dog found a snail on the beach and ate her. Thereby he got a red snout. When the nymph saw this bright red she wanted to have a dress in this colour. Otherwise she wouldn't give in. And Melqart dyed a dress with this new colour and gave it as a gift to her. This was the first purple robe in history. And the Phoenicians got their name: People from the land of purple. According to Achilleus Tatios (2nd century AD) it was the dog of a fisher and when the fisher cleaned the supposed bleeding wound he discovered the purple. Background: Tyre was founded by Sidonian colonists 2000-3000 BC on two rocky islands in front of the coast of Phoenicia.The first historical documents are from around 1250 BC. Jesaja called Tyre correctly 'daughter of Sidon'. Soon it outflanked its mother by power and glory. It was called 'Queen of sea'. Actually king Hiram connected the two islands by heaping up with soil. Because of its wealth it soon attracted conquerors like Nebukadnezar who 13 years besieged it but without success. It was assumed to be impregnable because it was a fortress situated in the sea like St.Malo in Brittany. It was Alexander the Great who succeeded in conquering it. He built a causeway from the land to the island and so he took Tyre. This causeway was maintained so that Tyre (todays Sur in Libane) became a peninsula until now. The word 'Tyros' is derivated from the Pheonician 'tor', meaning rock (cp. Hebrew 'tzur'). The two Tyrian rocks could be two baetylic rocks too which stood in front of the temple of Melqart built by king Hiram and were worshipped in Tyre. Their name later was transferred to the rock of Gibraltar. The name "ambrosial rocks" is traced back to Semitic amm beruth (= mother of wells). I have added (1) the pic of the purple snail Murex, today called correctly Hexaplex trunculus. The pic is from the collection of Eric Feldhuis (Netherlands). I for myself naturally too collect seashells. (2) an overview sketch of the causeway built by Alexander the Great from Frank Martin, a cartographer of the US Military Academy (from Wikipedia) Literature: (1) Nonnos, Dionysiaca (2) A.B.Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion, 1925 (online) (3) Wikipedia Best regards Jochen
As usual, generous and educational write-up. Here's a coin from Tyre which was struck under Elagabalus. There's the counter-mark of Melqart on obverse. Reverse shows Astarte standing and being crowned be Nike on a column. Please notice the Murex shell at the the lower part of the inner right field on reverse.Lindgren 2376
Great post as usual @Jochen1 . Here is a tetradrachm from Tyre with a murex shell underneath the eagle on the reverse...I never knew what that signified, thanks for the interesting write-up. Caracalla, Tetradrachm, Phoenicia (Tyre) mint, (27mm., 13.70g) Laureate head of Caracalla r./Rev. Eagle standing facing on club r., head and tail l., holding wreath in beak; between legs, murex shell. Prieur 1535.
