SILVER TETRADRACHM OF THE GREEK KING SELEUCUS I NICATOR

 

Silver Tetradrachm of the Greek King Seleucus I . 312-280.  Obv. Bridled horsehead looking right, with horns. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΕΛΕΥΚΟΥ ( of King Seleucus )  Elephant walking right and monograms below it. 

This tetradrachm is an emblematic issue of Seleucus I, the founder of the Seleucid dynasty, whose Kingdom extended from Thrace and Asia Minor in the West to Bactria in the East and from the Black Sea in the north to the borders of Egypt in the South at its peak. Seleucus was essentialy the only Successor of Alexander the Great who came closest to restoring the entirety of the Macedonian Empire, and this coin gives us an idea of how he achieved to create such a vast Kingdom. 

The obverse type depicts the head of a magnificent horse adorned with the horns of a bull. Ioannis Malalas, a Syrian chronicler of the byzantine times, tells us that in his day (the late 5th-early 6th centuries CE) there was still a statue in Antioch erected by Seleucus, depicting a horned horse. Seleucus commissioned this statue to honour his own steed who had saved him from destruction at the hands of Antigonos Monophthalmos in 315 BCE. Although Seleucus had been appointed satrap of Babylonia by an assembly of Alexander's former generals in 321 BCE, Antigonos, who was made strategos of Asia at the same time sought to remove the satraps that he could not control and thereby become the new master of Alexander's Empire. Realizing the danger, Seleucus took to his horse and escaped from Babylon to the Egyptian court of Ptolemy. With Ptolemy's assistance, Seleucus was able to return to Babylon-again on his horse-and reclaim his satrapy in 312 BCE.

 In 306/5 BCE,  he embarked upon an eastern campaign to gain control of the Upper Satrapies. However, the real benefit of this campaign was a peace treaty made with the Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta that involved the gift of 500 elephants. Elephants, such as the majestic creature depicted on the reverse of the tetradrachm, were the equivalent to the tank of the ancient Greek world, capable of great destruction and inspiring fear in infantry and cavalry alike ranged against them. 

Like the horse of the obverse, the elephants of Chandragupta had a pivotal role to play in Seleucus' reign. Thanks to their timely arrival at the Battle of Ipsos (301 BCE), it was possible for Seleucus and his allies to defeat and kill Antigonos, thereby ending an ever-present threat. With Antigonos gone, Seleucus could safely rule his eastern Kingdom. The tetradrachm itself gives us the end of the story. It was struck at Pergamon for Seleucus by a local dynast named Philetairos-the founder of the later Attalid dynasty. In 281 BCE, the year the coin was issued, Philetairos and other cities and rulers of western Asia Minor invited Seleucus to march west and destroy his sometime ally, Lysimachos, who had made himself very unpopular in the region. Seleucus accepted, and he defeated and killed Lysimacus at the Battle of Korupedion. This victory gained for Seleucus all of Lysimacus' former territory in Asia Minor and Thrace, but he did not have the chance to enjoy this new victory. Later in the year, as he marched through Thrace, Seleucus was murdered by a refugee from the Ptolemaic court. His name and legacy, however, remain immortal .

SURKH KOTAL INSCRIPTION IN GREEK SCRIPT ~ ~ PULI KHUMRI ~ AFGHANISTAN

 

Displayed at the Kabul Museum, this limestone tablet is from the 2nd century CE and is inscribed with the Greek alphabet. It was found in Surkh Kotal, an ancient archaeological site about 18 km north of Puli Khumri, the capital of Afghanistan’s Baghlan province. Use of the Greek alphabet was common for centuries after the campaign by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE  and was used for a long time, together with other local alphabets.

Image source  ~ Wikipedia

THE GORGONEION A GREEK APOTROPAIC IMAGE FROM THE DEPTHS OF CENTURIES

 

In Ancient Greece, the Gorgoneion (Greek: Γοργόνειον) was a special apotropaic amulet showing the Gorgon head, which was used by  Athena and Zeus: Both are depicted wearing  the gorgoneion as a protective pendant.  Among other attributes, it was used by Alexander the Great himself and later by rulers of the Hellenistic age as a royal aegis to imply divine birth or protection, as shown, for instance, on the Alexander Mosaic and the Gonzaga Cameo. It is considered to be one of the most powerful protective images. 

Homer refers to the Gorgon on four occasions, each time alluding to the head alone, as if she had no body. The story of Perseus slaying Medusa is well-known, yet the centre of attention has since turned on the immensely apotropaic qualities that her head obtained after the beheading.Prior to the 5th century BCE, Medusa  was depicted as particularly ugly, with a protruding tongue, boar tusks, puffy cheeks, her eyeballs staring fixedly on the viewer and the snakes twisting all around her.

The direct frontal stare, especially expressing violent aggression, was highly unusual in ancient Greek art. (The common depiction of the evil eye on 6th century drinking vessels, and particularly, eye-cups, like Gorgoneia, are assumed apotropaics.) In some instances, what sometimes appears as a beard (probably standing for stylized hair or streaks of blood) was appended to her chin, making her appear as an orgiastic deity akin to Dionysus.

Gorgoneia that decorate the shields of warriors on mid-5th century Greek vases are considerably less grotesque and menacing. By that time, the Gorgon had lost her tusks and the snakes were rather stylized. The Hellenistic marble known as the Medusa Rondanini illustrates the Gorgon's eventual transformation into a beautiful woman.

Gorgoneia appear frequently in Greek art at the turn of the 8th century BCE. One of the earliest representations is on an electrum stater discovered during excavations at Parium. Other early 8th-century examples were found at Tiryns. Going further back into history, there is a similar image from the Knossos palace, datable to the 15th century BCE. Marija Gimbutas even argues that "the Gorgon extends back to at least 6,000 BCE, as a ceramic mask from the Sesklo culture illustrates", and in her book, Language of the Goddess, she also identifies the prototype of the Gorgoneion in Neolithic art motifs, especially in anthropomorphic vases and terracotta masks inlaid with gold.

In the 6th century, gorgoneia of a canonical "lion mask type" were ubiquitous on Greek temples, especially in and around Corinth. Pedimental gorgoneia were common in Sicily; probably the earliest occurrence being in the Temple of Apollo in Syracuse. Around 500 BCE, they ceased to be used for the decoration of monumental buildings, but were still shown on antefixes of smaller structures throughout the next century.

Apart from temples, the Gorgon imagery is present on garments, dishes, weapons, and coins found across the Mediterranean region from Etruria to the Black Sea coast. The Gorgon coins were struck in 37 cities, making her image on coins second in numismatic ubiquity only to several principal Olympian Gods and Goddesses. On mosaic floors, the Gorgoneion usually was depicted next to the threshold, as if guarding it from hostile intruders. On Attic kilns, the gorgoneion over the kiln door protected from mishaps.

SOURCE Wikipedia