View reverse
of coin
Tetradrachm. Obverse: Apollo
392-358 B.C.
Chalcidian League
Silver
Diameter - 23 mm; weight - 13.73 g
This coin from the Chalcidian League bears a depiction
of Apollo. He had his origins in Asia Minor, but very early on took
up residence among the Olympian deities and became probably the most
venerated and popular of all the gods. Temples in his honour were erected
all over the Greek world and everywhere people made offerings in order
to gain his favour and protection. His range of duties grew ever greater,
so that with time he came to have over fifty different epithets.
Apollo was constantly at odds with Zeus and Hera. He killed
Python, a favourite beast of Hera, slew the Cyclopes who were under
Zeus's protection and finally, together with Athena and Poseidon, became
involved in an out-and-out conspiracy against "the father of the
gods and mortals". He was subjected to humiliating punishments
as a consequence and had to perform hard labours like an ordinary mortal
for various rulers. He was even almost banished to Tartarus (the sunless
abyss below Hades), but saved by his mother's intercession.
Despite that, Apollo acquired ever greater power, becoming
a sort of universal deity, concentrating all divine functions in his
hands. He even became Apollo Moiragetes - guide of the moirae, the goddesses
of fate, something that Zeus himself did not manage as it was believed
that the supreme god could not command fate.
Admittedly, people also laughed at Apollo in the Ancient
World, saying that he had so many duties that he could not deal with
any of them properly. Nonetheless, many cities placed his image on their
coins. And everywhere he is presented as a handsome youth with long
curly hair. His head is adorned by a laurel wreath as a reminder of
Apollo's ill-starred love for the nymph Daphne. She rejected the god's
advances and when he tried to catch her she turned into a laurel tree.
The distraught Apollo made a wreath of laurel branches and placed it
on his head. From that time he was depicted only in that wreath.
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