MYTH AND COINS-PORTRAITS IN THE ANCIENT COINS

Olympic ZEUS

In about the late 7th century BC, several laboratories of Asia show large diversity of animals using techniques reminiscent of the Minoan and Mycenaean seal. Later divinesymbols engraved or local plants. At the turn of the 6th to the 5th century, Delos define the currencies of the lyre and archaic staters of the island pictured apple.
The human figure is close to the 6th century with the development of gods and heroes.The single head, the eye was originally depicted with a strong head and a spherical shape. At the beginning of coining the male depictions are rare and often reflect the apotropaic Gorgon.
The depiction of the person with individual characteristics was not allowed. Darrio the Persian, the "great king" is assigned symbolically as an archer. Symbolic is the illustration of Themistocles, with head of a warrior. In coins that Artaxerxes allowed him to cut, engraved name, monogram or ΘΕ, but not the form.
The Greek kings did not even dare to commit such sacrilege. In the silver four-drachma,Philip B will pave the head of Zeus.

Philip E'

On satrapies of the East however the revolutionary idea of making a specific mortal already displayed in 412/411 BC, a coin in the form of Tissaphernes. Other coins around 413-373 BC, save the portrait of Pharnabazus. There are also coins with rulers of Lycia, and their names are written in local languages. But the coinage of the region,the forerunner of the Hellenistic portraiture, is Greek in nature. One of the finest examples are the silver stater of the Greek ruler Pericles minted around 380-360 BC.

aspasia pericles mistress

In the silver four-drachma with his head of Hercules, which cut Alexander, depicted his own portrait. The investigators believe that Alexander, like his father Philip, chose thetraditional symbolic representation not obtained its own characteristics rather than on tetradrachms of Lysimachus, where Alexander is depicted as Zeus-Ammon, and those of Ptolemy, where bearing the head of an elephant's hide. Of his successors, first Demetrius the Besieger dared to draw a shape, one of the most idealistic portraits of the early Hellenistic era.

The reverse coin depicts Zeus enthroned, holding a scepter and an eagle reflecting the cult statue sculpted by Pheidias in the Temple of Zeus at Olympia and race torch at left.

Demetrius the Besieger

The transition to realistic form represent the portraits of Philip and Titus Flamininus.Realistic is the return of the last king of Macedonia, Perseus from his own engraver Zoilo (179/178 BC). The Eumenes A and subsequent kings of Pergamon engravedportrait of the founder of the dynasty malformed Filetairou realism which does not hidethe brutality. From the dynasty of Pontus Mithridates III first minted coins with the troubledand evil form. All sensitivity has no form of successor Pharnakes A. Unique is a silver tetradrachm of Athens Numismatic Museum in the form of Mithridates V the Benefactor ,been directed to the idealization. From the world's richest collection of the Ptolemaic period have the Numismatic Museum, oktadrachma singles gold with a portrait of Berenice, wife of Ptolemy III the Benefactor, and Ptolemy E. Remarkable is a silver coin of 38 BC with the realistic depiction of the much discussed Cleopatra E'

Cleopatra E'

Mithridates V

Philetaerus Eumenes I

Eumenes II

Ptolemy E