Vila Wolf's Dyslexic Folklorist Ranting

Extremely Rare & Fine Greek Coin Showing Dionysos

This stater is worth about $211,000 and is the finest example of this type known. It’s from the ancient city of Thebes in Boeotia from around 405-395 BC. On the obverse is a Boeotian shield with the reverse side displaying an image of Dionysos wearing an ivy wreath with the letters Θ and Ε.

The mint of Thebes produced a number of unusually fine representations on the reverses of its staters, but this one must be the most startlingly impressive of them all. Dionysos, the god of wine, is clearly a figure of great power and emotion; his eyes are fully open and stare out at us, and his lips are parted so that we can see the teeth within his mouth. The brilliant engraver who created this astonishing head has let us imagine the flush moving over the god’s cheeks, as he gets redder and redder with all the sacred wine he has drunk. This is unquestionably one of the finest facing heads in all Greek numismatic art.

Silver handle from a serving dish

Mid-Imperial Roman, Severan period, early 3rd century A.D.

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cypriot Limestone Votive Pine Cone, Hellenistic, 3rd-1st Century BC

Pine cone symbolism is consistently found across many ancient cultures. The ancient Greeks and Assyrians viewed the pine cone as a symbol of masculinity because of its phallic shape. It formed the apex of the Greek thyrsus staff, which was associated with Dionysus and represented fertility and prosperity.  Assyrian winged deities with pine cones represented the power of regeneration and immortality.

As the emblem of Artemis, it represented feminine purity. It was also the emblem of the Roman goddess Venus (Aphrodite). And, from ancient Egypt on some of the papyri illustrating the entrance of the souls of the dead into the judgment hall of Osiris, the deceased person had a pine cone attached to the crown of his head, which is thought to represent wisdom and immortality.

Silver Cistophoric Tetradrachm from Tralleis, Lydia, C. 140-135 BC

The coins shows a snake emerging from a cista mystica (a basket used in the worship of Dionysus/Bacchus) surrounded by an ivy wreath. The reverse shows an ornate bow case between two serpents; a star is between the snake’s heads; Helios’ radiate head is to the right and a monogram is on the left.

According to Strabo, Tralleis aka (Tralles, map) was founded by the Argives and Trallians, a Thracian tribe. Along with the rest of Lydia, the city fell to the Persian Empire. After its success against Athens in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta unsuccessfully sought to take the city from the Persians, but in 334 BC, Tralleis surrendered to Alexander the Great without resistance and therefore was not sacked. Alexander’s general Antigonus held the city from 313 to 301 BC and later the Seleucids held the city until 190 BC when it fell to Pergamon. From 133 to 129 BC, the city supported Aristonicus of Pergamon, a pretender to the Pergamene throne, against the Romans. After the Romans defeated him, they revoked the city’s right to mint coins.

Tralleis was a conventus for a time under the Roman Republic, but Ephesus later took over that position. The city was taken by rebels during the Mithridatic War during which many Roman inhabitants were killed. Tralleis suffered greatly from an earthquake in 26 BC. Augustus provided funds for its reconstruction after which the city thanked him by renaming itself Caesarea.

Strabo describes the city as a prosperous trading center, listing famous residents of the city, including Pythodoros (native of Nysa), and orators Damasus Scombrus and Dionysocles. Several centuries later, Anthemius of Tralleis, architect of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, was born in Tralleis.

Extremely Rare Centaur Coin, C. 500-450 BC

Valued at $180,000, this electrum stater was minted by the Orrescii, an ancient Thraco-Macedonian tribe. It shows a centaur carrying off a struggling nymph. The reverse side is a simple quadripartite incuse square. This stater is of the greatest numismatic importance and rarity and is apparently unique and unrecorded. It appears to be lacking a direct comparison in the published numismatic literature. The closest parallel is an electrum stater in the British Museum collection, of similar type, but of a wholly different style and execution.

The Orrescii lived around the ancient city of Lete (map) in Mygdonia, Macedon. They may have been identical to the Satrae and closely connected with the Bessi, or priests of the oracular temple of the Thracian Bacchus. The Orrescii and other Pangaean tribes were miners who worked the mines around the Pangaean range.

Their coins reflected their religious beliefs, the subjects being satyrs and centaurs carrying off struggling nymphs, iconography associated with the worship of Bacchus. The image of a centaur on the Orrescii coins however is more rare than that of the satyr. These coins illustrate the wild rituals which were held in the mountains of Thrace and Phrygia in honor of Bacchus, whose mysterious oracular temple stood on the top of Mount Pangaeum.

The Triumph of Cybele, after Paolo Fiammingo’s ‘Triumph of Earth’ Hans Friedrich Schorer 1634 Pen and black ink, gray wash and white heightening

Curiouser and curiouser…

Cybele in Her Chariot Baldassare Tommaso Peruzzi ca. 1530–60 Engraving

Okay. We know:

That does lend credence to the theory of Dionysus as a galla. Fascinating.

Bacchic Mask

Bronze

Roman, 1st Century AD

The ivy wreath is clearly visibly on the head complete with bunches of grapes. His long beard is beautifully rendered, fanning out in twisted corkscrews.

Erotic Fresco from Pompeii ~ Cult of Bacchus