Elagabalus 218-222 CE
Æ 26mm, 13,11g
struck under governor Novius Rufus
Obv.: AVT K M AVPH – ANTΩNEINOC
Laureate head r.
Rev.: VΠ NOBIOV POVΦOV NIKOΠOΛITΩN ΠPOC ICTP
in l. and r. field O – N
Herakles, bearded, nude, stg. frontal, head l., resting with r.. hand on club, lion’s
skin over l. arm, holding l. hand at hip
Ref.: a) AMNG I/1, 1947 b) not in Varbanov c) Histova/Hoeft/Jekov (2023) 8.6.14.7
This is an intriguing coin from Nicopolis ad Istrum, who had a habit of minting coins from sculptures, though sadly in this case the sculptor is unknown.
Like many of their coins, this one was likely copied from a copy of the original, and one sculpted copy exists today in the Museu San Ffrancisco Montefalco in the cute town of Montefalco in Umbria. Herakles is leaning on a gnarled club with his right hand, with the skin of the Nemean lion hanging on his left and one of the apples of The Hesperides in his left. Thus, two of his labors are recalled in this image.
Herakles was forced to perform these labors, set by his cousin king Eurystheus, due to a madness that overtook Herakles and caused him to murder his wife and children (the Disney movie left that part out). One of those tasks was handling the big kitty in Nemea, whose fur was impervious to arrows. So, he drew the lion into its own cave and then strangled it with his bare hands.
Far more challenging to the brawny brute was skinning the animal, so he could pose on numerous statues, coins, and paintings with it proudly displayed. He tried at first with a knife, and then a stone, before Athena suggested he use one of the creature’s own claws.
On the other task, the Hersperides were four(ish) bad-ass maidens who guarded some golden apples. The first problem was, Herakles had no idea where the garden where the Hersperides resided was, and GPS wouldn’t be invented for almost 3000 years. So, he hooked up a fishing line, caught the Old Man of the Sea using the latest in lures, and forced him to divulge the location.
To obtain the apples, he tricked Atlas into doing the job for him by offering to hold up the heavens while Atlas asked his cousins/daughters the Hesperides to toss him a few apples. When Atlas got back, he got to thinking about things and resolved that munching on a few apples was a lot easier than holding up the heavens all day, so Herakles then played another trick and offered to keep holding up the heavens if he could just make his cloak more comfortable. Atlas complied, and Herakles walked away with the apples.
From the museum’s web site, it’s mentioned that their copy – created in the 1st century BCE or CE, was from a 4th century BCE original. A similar reverse is depicted on a provincial from Las, Lakonia and is covered in Imhoof-Blumer and Gardner. The attribution of the statue isn’t strong, but is based on Pausanias’ description of Las – “and standing before the city wall is a statue of Herakles.” In this case, Imhoof Blumer and Gardner are assuming that a statue of Herakles depicted on a coin from that period is the same as that found by Pausanias.
It’s difficult to know whether the Herakles on my coin is of the same type that existed at Las, but mine strongly resembles that in the Montefalco, down to the apple that most attributions seem to miss. It does certainly look like an apple to me. One difference that struck me, though, is that my Herakles is looking to the right, while the Montefalco Herakles looks straight forward. I believe this to be an artifact of the die maker, who found it far easier to depict a person looking to the side.
I haven’t been able to find much about the provenance of the Montefalco Herakles, but per their website most of their pieces were found during refurbishment work on medieval buildings in the city. Most likely, this was a very famous statue of the time and commonly copied, and I suspect there was another one in Nicopolis ad Istrum from which this coin was modeled. We don’t know who carved the original, but it was probably someone famous.