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Message:: [QUOTE="Curtisimo, post: 6451138, member: 83845"][ATTACH=full]1256883[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1256884[/ATTACH]Egypt, Alexandria Antoninus PiusBI Tetradrachm, Alexandria mint, RY 11 = AD 147/8. Dia.: 24 mmWt.: 13.81 gObv.: ANTωNEINOC CEB EYCEB, Laureate bust rightRev.: L ENΔEKATOV, Elpis standing left, lifting hem of skirt and holding flowerRef.: Dattari-Savio pl. 111, 8160 (this coin illustrated); Emmett 1383.11; RPC Online IV temp #13607 (this coin cited).Ex Robert L. Grover Collection of Roman-Egyptian Coinage, previously held by the Art Institute of Chicago (1981.511); ex Giovanni Dattari Collection (1853-1923) ProvenanceThis coin is one of the best provenances in my collection.  It was in the collection of Giovanni Dattari (1853-1923) and is shown in the Dattari-Savio plates (pencil rubbings shown above).  It was also in the collection of the numismatist Robert L. Grover who then donated it to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1981.  The museum sold it in 2017.  This coin spent time in the fabulous [USER=57495]@zumbly[/USER] Collection before finding a new home in my collection.  I’m not sure how provenance gets any better than that.[ATTACH=full]1256889[/ATTACH] Elpis and the Myth of Pandora’s “Box”Have you ever stopped to think about the myth of Pandora’s box and realized that it doesn’t make sense?  Is Hope (Elpis) the worst of the bad things that needs to be contained in the jar or is Hope a good thing that needs to be protected in the jar? Let’s take a look at the myth. Hope as a Negative Goddess?The earliest telling of the myth comes from Hesiod in the Works and Days written sometime in the 7th or 8th century BC. For those that aren’t familiar with the story, the short version is that Zeus wanted to punish humans for receiving the gift of fire from Prometheus and so he had Hephaestus craft a beautiful woman named Pandora and gave her a jar (in Greek pithos, which is a large jar, not a box) with all of the evil things that could plague mankind trapped inside it. [ATTACH=full]1256890[/ATTACH]I took this photo of several pithoi at the archeological site of Knossos on the island of Crete. These jars are huge.  I can’t help but wonder if Zeus made two of these evil filled jars and accidentally knocked the other one over at the end of 2019... (Author’s photo) Pandora was then married to Prometheus’s brother, Epimetheus and sent down from Mt. Olympus to live on earth with him. Eventually she became so curious as to what was inside the jar that according to Hesiod she; <blockquote>“took off the great lid of the jar with her hands and scattered, all these [evils] and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aegis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues, wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils.” [1]</blockquote> The word used by Hesiod for Hope is ἐλπίς (Elpis).  This is the goddess shown on the reverse of the above coin. So if Hope (Elpis) is a good thing why is she in a jar with all the evils of mankind? Why, further, is it a good thing that Hope is kept in the jar?  Wouldn’t it be better if Hope was out in the world to comfort humanity?  It seems that Hesiod actually thinks of Elpis as evil, perhaps even the worst of the evils in the jar. The confusion comes from our translation of the Greek Elpis into Hope.  This isn’t exactly correct. Elpis was the spirit (or goddess) of “expectation” in either its positive or negative form.  Her positive aspect was something like our modern concept of “hope” but her negative aspect should be thought of as something like “foreboding.” In this light the message might be that although the evils of the jar are now reeking havoc among humans who will have to undergo suffering and death we have the ability to not feel debilitating fear at our fate because Zeus decreed that Elpis (foreboding) will be contained in the jar. It sounds rather dire, which of course it is. If you read Hesiod you quickly realize he’s not exactly a sunshine and rainbows kind of guy. Hope Becomes a Positive GoddessHesiod’s view of a negative Elpis (Hope) was not the only view and it was not the view that eventually won out. One variation of Elpis and Pandora’s Box appears in a fable attributed to Aesop who lived a century or two after Hesiod (dates are very uncertain).  It is called Zeus and the Jar of Good Things: <blockquote>“Zeus gathered all the useful things together in a jar and put a lid on it. He then left the jar in human hands. But man had no self-control and he wanted to know what was in that jar, so he pushed the lid aside, letting those things go back to the abode of the gods. So all the good things flew away, soaring high above the earth, and Hope was the only thing left. When the lid was put back on the jar, Hope was kept inside. That is why Hope alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away.” [2]</blockquote> In this version the things in the jar are all good things and there is no Pandora.  The good things are given as a gift to mankind but because humans have no self control these gifts return to the realm of the gods.   Hope is the only good thing that remains on earth in the jar. This positive aspect of Elpis was later associated with the Roman goddess Spes which only strengthened her role as a benevolent goddess.  This seems to be the aspect of Elpis that becomes the most dominant when depicted in art during the Roman period.  In sculptures and on this coin Elpis comes to be shown as a woman bestowing on the viewer a good thing represented by a flower in her outstretched hand. [ATTACH=full]1256892[/ATTACH]Statuette showing Elpis / Spes presenting a flower in her right hand and holding the hem of her skirt with her left. (Images courtesy of the National Museums Liverpool) References[1] Hesiod:<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0132%3Acard%3D83" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0132%3Acard%3D83" rel="nofollow">http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0132:card=83</a> [2] Aesop:<a href="http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/perry/312.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/perry/312.htm" rel="nofollow">http://mythfolklore.net/aesopica/perry/312.htm</a> Please feel free to show your:<ul> <li>Elpis / Spes coins</li> <li>Coins from Alexandria </li> <li>Coins showing a flower</li> <li>Coins with a mythical figure with both positive and negative aspects</li> </ul>[/QUOTE]

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