Floral patterns on archaic Greek coins / [Percy Gardner]

8/9/2019 Floral patterns on archaic Greek coins / [Percy Gardner]

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NUMISMATIC CHRONICLE.

i.

FLORALPATTERNSON ARCHAICGREEK COINS.

The deviceon the reverse of the early coinsof Corcyra,and of Dyrrhachium and Apollonia, the colonies ofCorcyra, as caused much difficulty mong numismatists.Eckhel accepted the opinion f Beger that t representedthe celebrated

ardensf

Alcinoüs,Kingof the

Phaeacians,of which Homer speaks in terms of high praise (Odysvii. 112). There was,he says, without he court of Alci-noüs,a large orchardnear the doors, nd around t a walldrawn all round. In it grew pears, apples,pomegranates,and figs,which ripened n succession ll the year through.And beside it was a vineyard, nd a vegetable garden,and in the midst two fountains. Of these orchards ndgardens he type of the coinswas supposed orepresent

sort of rude ground-plan.This attribution asfollowed yEckhel, but by scarcelyany more recent numismatist. Boeckh, Müller, andothers consider the type to be merely a star-like butfortuitous ollection of strokeswithout special meaning.Friedländer and Yon Saliet see in it the stars of theDioscuri {K.M. K., p. 62). In the course of an exami-nation of the coinsof Corcyra, have come to the convic-tion that the type is not without meaning; but that it

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2 NUMISMATICHRONICLE.

does not represent he stars of the Dioscuri, nd certainlynot the Gardensof Alcinoiis.

The latter upposition s indeed entirely isposedof bythe fact that the type does not appear to originate atCorcyra at all. The reverse-type f the Corcyreandidrachms Pl. I. No. 2) occurs on very early coins ofCyrene [Rev. Num., 1850, PI. vii. 4). The reverse-typeof Corcyrean drachms Pl. I. No. 3) is found not onlyon the money f Cyrene Pl. I. No. 13),but also on thatof Miletus (Pl. I. No. 8), of Pharae, in Bœotia (Num.Zeit.) ix., PL I. 85), of Thebes {Num. Zeit , iii.,PL X. 19), of Gortyna (Fox CollectionNo. 107), andprobably of other cities. The coins of Cyrene, whichoffer us both the double and the single type, are

probably more ancient than those of Corcyra. Thisatonce sets us inquiring whether Cyrene nd Corcyrahadany religious cults in common, the religious origin ofcoin-types being now admitted on all hands. And thisinquiry leads us to observe that Apollo-Aristaouswasheld in high honour t both places. At Cyrenehe wasregarded s a national hero, nd the giver f the silphium-plant, the most celebrated f all drugs, nd the source ofCyrenean prosperity. At Corcyra the same deity wasworshipped under slightly different orm as Agreus orZeus Aristus, protector f flocks. And the Apollo ofMiletus, city celebrated for its sheep,was no doubt adeity of the same class. The occurrence f our type atPharae, Thebes, and other cities s so exceptionalthat itneednot detain us.

It would therefore eemprobable hat, like at Corcyra,

1See Eekhel,Num.vet. nect p. 107. Müller,DeCoreyraorwn epublicap. 54.



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FLORALATTERNSN ARCHAIC REEKCOINS. 3

Cyrene, and Miletus, the type called the Gardens ofAlcinoüs is connected with the worship of a particulardeity who, though called by various names at variousplaces, was an Apolline deity of the Solar class, andnearly connected with cattle and sheep. This doesnot at once decide the nature of the type. It mightat first be supposed to be a star, as emblem of thesun. Certainly on later coins of Miletus the objectfigured n conjunctionwith the lion is a star, nd a star sa not uncommon ype in the island of Ceos,which wasespeciallydedicated oAristaeus.

Nevertheless, he balance of evidence seems to be infavour f the floral rigin of the type. Not only s it farmore like a flower n shape generally, ut in particular

instances t seems to be intentionally modified n order omake t more decidedlyfloral. Thus in the case of No. 5of the Plate we may clearly see the petals of a flower ndstamens between the petals.2 And in No. 14,a coin ofCyrene,we have the disk of the flower igured.

The close connection f the rose with the worship ofApollo as sun-god, specially n the case of the Island ofRhodes, s notorious. The rose s a constant type on theRhodiu coinage from about b.c. 400 onwards. At

Ery hree lso there occurs as reverse-type n early coins(Pl. I. No. 10)a flowerwith severalpetals and Erythraewas a city devoted to the worship f the Tyrian sun-godHerakles. On early coins of Tarentum Apollo holds inhis hand a flower,whichmay probably e a rose, thoughsome prefer o see in it the hyacinth, flower pecially

2It may be at first ight doubtedwhether his type beidenticalwith he earlier ne in meaning nd origin but a

closer xaminationf the equencef the oins f Corcyra illrender t almost ertain hat t s so. Seep. 6.



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connected n myth with Apollo. The close connection fthe roses of the Pangseandistrict with the worship f thesun-god Ares has alreadybeen dwelt on in the pagesofthe NumismaticChronicle 1880,p. 57).

But it was not only with Apollo and the other un-gods that flowerswere in cultus connected. This clearlyis a subjectfar too wide to be treated f incidentally n apaper n the Numismatic hronicle.3 The apple and therose were favourites f Aphrodite, he orange of Hera ;the pomegranate was sacred alike to Persephone andHera. The crocus rose from hebloodof a youth whomHermeshad slain with a discus,the violetfrom hebloodof Atys, the ily from he milk of Hera, the anemone romthe tears of Aphrodite over the dead Adonis. And

amongthe localmyths herished nd preserved y variousGreek cities, with regard to the history of the deitieswhom heyrespectively eld in highest honour, herewerevery many whichconnected thosedeitieswith plants andwith flowers. Some of these myths have been lost n thewreck of ancient life, but we possessenoughto showustheir haracter. And that such local myths houldfindan expressionon coins is exactly n accordwith ll thatwe learn from ther ources s to the nature nd meaningof coin-types.

The commonness f floral representations n early artcannot be unknown to any one who has even a slightacquaintancewith the art of Egypt and Assyria, r whahas examined some of the early vases of Phoenician ndGreek work.

It being then à priori not unlikely hat the flowers

3On the whole subject see Bötticher Baumcultus pp.260-270, 456 486.



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FLORALATTERNSNARCHAIC REEKCOINS. 5

sacredto various deities hould appear on the coins issuedby cities under the protection f those deities, et usexamine he nstances lreadymentioned, nd those ited nthe plate, osee whether heybearout n detail he generalpresumption. The case with regard to Cyrene is strong.On coinsof this city we find Pl. I. Nos.13, 14),betweenthe four main branches f the types whichmay stand forpetals, other deviceswhich give a decidedly loral ooktothe whole. In one case(No. 14), as already stated, thetype is surrounded y a circular ine which eemsclearlyto stand for he disk of the flower. And with these factswe may combine the well-known circumstance hat thetypes f Cyrene are usually of a floral character, he sil-phium-plant eing the specialsymbol f the city alike as

one of the chief objects of its culture nd as sacred toApollo-Aristseus. But the roses of Cyrenewerescarcelylesscelebrated than ts silphium, nd it is moreprobablethat the type f the coins n the Plate is intended orepre-sent a rose than a flower f the silphium-plant.

The type of the coins of Miletus has been taken forstar. But on the earlier coíls, such as those n the Plate(Nos.7, 8), and even on the money ssuedby Hecatomnus(No.9), the deviceappears to be of floral haracter. Thechief deity of Miletuswas of course the Apolloof Didyma,to whom tar and flowerwould be alike appropriate.

At the city of Cyme, f indeed the coinNo. 11 in myPlate is rightly iven to that city, we have a pattern fstill more clearly floral character. But in this case whatis represented s not a single flower, ut rather tree orplant, which s symbolically endered ike the sacredtreeamong heAssyrians. Alsoon electrum oinsof uncertainattribution No. 12), we find what seemsclearly to be aflowerwith pistils nd stamens s obverse ype.



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To return to the coins of Corcyra. In that islandApollo- ristaeuswas held in not esshigh honour han atOyrene, nd a flower s as appropriate to his cult at theone placeas the other. In the Plate (Nos.1 6) will befound the various forms assumed by the flower n theCorcyrean oinage. In these are sòmepeculiarities hichmerit ttention.

Firstly, n the case of the earlier coinsthere re peculi-aritieswhich ater disappear. Their reverse-type s in thecase of didrachms two figures f squareor oblong shape,whereof ne has in the midst small squareand theothera small rhombus r lozenge. In the ase of drachms hereis but oneof these figures,with either quareor rhombusin the midst. The meaning of this variation, for it is

clearly intentional nd must have a meaning, s quiteunknown o me. Both squareand rhombus ive place toa dot or pellet n the middleof the fifth century. And atthe same time the general pattern, while retained n thecase of didrachms, ives place in that of drachms to acircular floral esign.

Dyrrhachium nd Apollonia copy the type of theirmother-city, orcyra. And amongthe varieties ntroducedinto t by the atter ity sone which merits pecialnotice.On the drachms ssuedby the magistrate haeren we findthe conventional inear square whichusuallyencloses hepattern called the Gardens of Alcinoiis?but in placooťthat pattern fire nd a pedum or shepherd s taff. Thisvariety had already attracted the attention f Mr. Bor-rell,4 nd forms heground onwhichhestarted he theorythat the so-called Gardens of Alcinous9 pattern reallyrepresented cave at Apolloniawhere the flocks acredto

i Num.Chrori vii.p. 126.



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FLORALATTERNSNARCHAICREEKCOINS. 7

Apollo were put away at night. In refutation f thistheory t is sufficient oobserve that the peopleof Apol-lonia undoubtedly orrowed their type from Corcyraand that the Corcyreans ad nothing odo with the cavein question. A simpler explanation will be truer. Nodoubt the meaningof the device was entirely orgotten tthe time secondcentury .c.)of the magistrate Chaeren.In modifying t by the introduction f a fire nd a pedumhe probablywished to make it more ppropriate to thecity of Apollonia the fire being introduced s a symbolof the hot-springs f the place,as it is in later ssues, ndthe pedum probably having reference oApollo Aristaeusin his character f Nomius

In closing this brief discussion may remark hat all

analogy s in favour of an attempt oshowthat a groupof types belonging to early Greek coins has a meaning,and that meaning religious ne. If I maintained t tohave no meaning, r to be purely secular in character,there would be more need to make the ground ecure.

Percy Gardner.



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Floral patterns on archaic Greek coins / [Percy Gardner]