The State Hermitage Museum: Exhibitions

Coin of indeterminate value. Reverse: Hades

Reign of Gordianus III (238-244 A.D.)

Odessus, Moesia

Copper

Diameter - 27 mm; weight - 12.47 g

The gloomy, taciturn Hades, the god of the Underworld and ruler of the dead, was the most terrible of all the gods because he knew no pity.

His very name was considered unlucky and people tried to substitute it for euphemistic nicknames: Pluto ("the Rich") because he owned all underground treasures and could give an abundant harvest, Clymenos ("the Illustrious"), Pylartes ("the Gate-Keeper") and Stygeros ("the Hateful"). Only black animals were sacrificed to him, but all offerings were useless as this terrible god could not be swayed.

Hades rarely left his own realm and was a second-rate deity among the Olympians. Even mortals could gain a victory over him. Heracles, for example, when they met in single combat, wounded him so badly that Hades had to seek the aid of Paean, physician to the gods.

Since Hades was unloved, this god appeared on coins extremely rarely. On this coin from Odessus, Hades sits majestically on his throne. In his right hand he holds a phiale (shallow bowl), while his left rests on a sceptre. At his feet is the three-headed dog Cerberus that guarded the entrance to the Underworld and was ready to devour both the living who dared to enter the realm of the dead and the dead shades who tried to escape from the Underworld.

View reverse of coin

Coin of indeterminate value. Obverse: busts of Gordianus III and Serapis

Reign of Gordianus III (238-244 A.D.)

Odessus, Moesia

Copper

Diameter - 27 mm; weight - 12.47 g