The types of early Greek coins, therefore, afford us a most interesting series of symbols connected with the foundation and early history of several Greek states, of which no other record remains, and the study of them was commenced nearly as early as the time of the revival of learning in the fifteenth century. It was thought by some that such types as the bunch of grapes on the coins of Myconos, and the ear of wheat on those of Metapontum, had only reference to the products of the soil, while others insisted that they were purely religious, but more recent investigation has shown that they partake of both characters, for the adoption of a divinity and the dedication of certain things as objects of sacrifice in the worship of that divinity frequently depended upon the products of the soil or the geographical character of the locality. Thus, it is well known that it was usual to pay divine honours to adjacent rivers, as causes of fertility, &c., as is shown by the frequent occurrence of the name of river deities on coins. A newly formed city not unfrequently received its name from that of the stream or some object connected with it, as at Selinus, in Sicily, where the stream is still covered with the waterparsley plant, called by the Greeks σedivov (selinon), which gave its name to the city, and became, no doubt, an offering to the presiding deity, and, as such, the sacred emblem by which the people of Selinus sealed or stamped the public money. The river Acheloüs, in Acarnania, represented by a human-headed bull, is a fine example of the personification and worship of rivers, as also the types of the cities of Gelas, Neapolis, &c., no doubt copied from this; as well as the frequently occurring type of the bull, generally symbolising a river. Seaport towns frequently adopted marine objects for the national symbol, and from causes analogous to the one detailed above, as the dolphin of Syracuse, the seal of Phocea, the tortoise of Ægina, and the cuttle-fish and cockle-shell of other places. Some types of the nature of that of Selinus, are such as have been termed by early numismatists "speaking types," by whom they were considered a sort of pun upon the * See description of Plate IV. for an account of several early types of Greek coins. name of the state, a display of small wit which such a pec ple as the Greeks do not appear at all likely to have displayed upon a matter so serious as the national coinage. Some writers, however, still persist in this view of the matter, and cite the medieval coins of the Spanish city of Granada, upon which the fruit of the granata, or pomegranate, appears as the type, which, even should it be proved in that case to be a mere pun, would be no proof that the early Greeks condescended to similar jeux d'esprit; for modern coins and medals afford numerous examples of such sorry attempts at wit as could never enter into the more severe tastes of the ancients. For instance, on what ancient medal could such a puerile and yet profane conceit as the following be found: - Pope Urban VIII., on repairing certain roads, caused a medal to be struck with the inscription, " Blessed are they who keep my ways" (BEATI QUI CUSTODIUNT VIAS MEAS). Nevertheless, though the idea of speaking types as intentional puns must be abandoned, yet it will be interesting to refer to a few of the most striking examples of this class of type That of the coinage of Rhodes is among the most frequently cited, a flower of the rose being the type, which flower bears the same name as the island (podov); but as the rose is remarkably abundant in that island, and sacred to Venus, who was worshipped there, it may easily be conceived to have been adopted from similar motives to those which induced the adoption of the parsley leaf as a national symbol at Selinus. I shall briefly mention a few other examples, without comment. The coins of Side have a pomegranate, in Greek side (odn); those of Melos, the apple, in Greek melon (unov); those of the ancient Ancona, in Italy, the elbow, in Greek ancon (ayкov); and those of Cardia, the heart, in Greek cardia (kapdía). Some cities received their names from the deities whose effigies appear eventually on the coins, as Athens from Athena, the Greek name of Minerva; and Posidonia, in Magna Græcia, from Poseidon, the Greek name of Neptune. Greek types of the first period are almost entirely symbols, while in the second period the deities themselves are personified. ON THE OBVERSE AND REVERSE OF ANCIENT COINS. The symbolic types of the first period were long considered as forming the obverse or principal side of the coin, even after the head of a deity was introduced; thus we find the ancient type of Corinth, the Pegasus, still on the principal side of the coin after the introduction of the head of Minerva as a national type; for the last-mentioned type first occurs in the hollow square, or punch mark, which is obviously the inferior side of the coin, being in early specimens merely a rugged blank, as described in a previous chapter on the origin of coinage. Very beautiful subjects frequently occur in the hollow square of the Boeotian coinage, while the ancient buckler still occupies the place of honour; and other similar examples will be found in the early plates of this volume; so that when, from increased skill in the art of coining, the trace of the square mark disappears, it is difficult to say whether the post of honour changed places at that epoch, or whether, long afterwards, the more ancient type was still considered to form the obverse or principal side of the coin. A sort of intermediate type between that of the very simple emblems found on the earliest coins, and the representation of gods under the human form, is that which symbolises them under an especial figure. River deities, for instance, were at first represented by the poetic emblem of a bull. Homer describes the roaring of the river Scamander as resembling that of a bull, and an impetuous torrent may easily be conceived to have some poetic analogy with the impetuous attack of an enraged bull. Types founded on this idea are such as are found on the coins of Acarnania, where the river deity Achelöus is represented by a bull with a human head; divinity being expressed as it were by the intellect symbolised by the human head, and power by the body of the bull. The coins of Gelas, in Sicily, and Neapolis, in Magna Græcia, have a similar type. The lion and bull on the coins of Acanthus have been supposed to symbolise power of a higher quality overcoming brute strength, as in Persia the same figure often expresses royalty subduing the rude force of the people, and in other cases in the east it bears a mere religious character-the bull, being the image of water or moisture, overcome by the lion, an image of the sun. Fire, or the great central fire, the sun, was the symbol of Deity among the followers of Zoroaster. A similar meaning has been given recently to Assyrian sculptures, in which the same emblems are combined.* As a bull has been used by poets and in early monetary types to express a river, so it is supposed that a serpent represents the sea, especially on coins of the Brettii. The hydrimarini, mentioned by Pliny (the sea-serpent being no modern invention), having been frequently used by poets to express marine power, in such a manner as the monster + Scylla, on a coin of Agrigentum, symbolises the dangers of the well-known strait that separates Italy from Sicily. The serpent which accompanies the rose on the coins of Rhodes is thought to express the insular position of that state. SECOND PERIOD OF GREEK TYPES. The ideal portraits of the deities of the Greek mythology next become the leading types of the Grecian coinage. A good and well marked example of the two periods may be found in the coins of Athens. The earliest known, having only an owl, an attribute of Minerva, for principal type, while those of a later period have the effigy of the deity herself. In grandeur of treatment, some of these idealised impersonalities of the deities of the Greek mythology, surpass any modern efforts of a similar class; such, for instance, as the magnificent head of Proserpine or Ceres, on the well known Sicilian medallions. The earliest representations of the gods by the Greeks consisted of mere masses of stone, the descent of aerolites having possibly given rise to the idea that stones falling upon the earth in a manner so wonderful, were especial manifestation of the presence of a deity, which gave rise to the personification of divinity under the form of a stone. * See description of coins of Gelas, Camarina, and Catania, 'n the chapter on Greek Coins of the Finest Period. See coins of Agrigentum in same chapter. That such an impression did prevail is proved by the stone deity, Elgabal, worshipped in Syria, the principal seat of the worship of aerolitic stones, which is described as a dark coloured conical stone, to which was attached the tradition that it fell from heaven: it was, no doubt, an aerolite. This stone was carried to Rome in great state by the emperor Eliogabalus, which was the origin of his surname, by which he is better known than by that of his family *. Venus was anciently worshipped at Paphos under the form of a similar stone, as were also the Juno of the Thespians, and the Diana of Icaria, and in other cases a stone column was made to represent a divinity. Dioscuri being represented in Lacædemonia by two parallel pieces of stone, united by two transverse pieces. The There are a few examples of very rude heads of deities upon Greek coins, but the earliest worthy of attention are those of the archaic period above referred to; some of which are remarkable for their careful and minute execution, and at the same time a certain grandeur and simplicity which distinguishes all works of Greek art among the coins of this class. Those of Naxos bearing the head of Bacchus are perhaps the most remarkable. It must be observed that when the head of a divinity had superseded the mere symbol as a monetary type, the former type did not always disappear, but became secondary,† being either grouped round the head of the deity on the principal side of the coin, like the dolphins round the head of Proserpine on the coin of Syracuse, or transferred to the reverse like the rose of Rhodes, or the bull of the coins of Sybaris, which last originally occupied the obverse, and had an incused impress of the same figure on the back; but after the adoption of the head of Minerva as the principal type, on account as some suppose, of the alliance with the Athenians, the old national type of the bull was transferred to the reverse, the art of making both sides of the coin perfect having been attained at that period. * Its removal is recorded upon Roman coins in an interesting manner, to be spoken of in describing the Roman series. + See page 208, on obverses and reverses, |