Polyphemus: Who the fuck are you?

Odysseus: Who the fuck are you?

Polyphemus: I asked you first.

Odysseus: I asked you second.

Charon’s Obol, 4th-3rd Century BC        

A Charon’s Obol is the coin placed in or on the mouth of the deceased person before burial. An obol was originally a small silver coin, valued at one-sixth of a drachma. Greek and Latin literary sources explain it as a payment for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed souls across the River Styx, which divided the world of the living from the world of the dead.

More precious gold or silver coins were seldom buried with the deceased so a type of “ghost money” was made instead by making an impression of a real coin into a thin gold foil, such as the current example. This thin gold piece was made by pressing gold foil over an actual coin bearing the image of Apollo wearing a laurel wreath, like this example.  These thin gold foil coins, also known as danake or lamella, were too flimsy to use as currency. Real coins were also buried with the dead as well, though they were generally small denominations.

More about Charon’s Obols…

I queued dozens of coin posts because I felt very interested in the subject at the time.  I thought I’d scan coins from my old collection, share photos from coin collecting sites, and actually have some interesting content on this blog.  Then Donald Trump won, and I was suddenly drained of all enthusiasm.

Joachim Wtewael: Mars and Venus Surprised by the Gods, c. 1606–10.

"Wtewael" is not a typo.  I had to look it up to be sure.

Fritz Zuber-Buhler - La Reine Bacchanal

Persephone by ~AriBach

Shot on a cell phone rather than scanned. Looks infinitely better than the real thing.

Gaston Bussière (1862-1928), Les Néréides.

Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée: Pygmalion and Galatea, 1777.

I've stumbled upon another angry fish!  Just look at Galatea's base.

In case you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, read this.

"The Three Graces" by Peter Zokosky.

The Graces (Charites in Greek mythology, Gratiae in Roman) are one of the most popular subjects in Classically-inspired art.  There are famous examples by Raphael da Urbino, Sandro Botticelli, and Peter Paul Rubens, plus one I particularly enjoy by Jean-Baptiste Regnault.

Laocoön and His Sons - Attributed to Agesander, Athenodoros and Polydorus of Rhodes, Ancient Greek

"Perseus Freeing Andromeda" by Piero di Cosimo.  There's a lot going on in there.