A digital site report about the Sanctuary of Heracles (the Herakleion) in Thasos, Greece.
Thasian Coinage
Table of Contents
Heracles on Thasian Coins
Heracles’ presence resonated throughout the ancient city of Thasos, the hero-god immortalized at his temple complex at the Sanctuary of Heracles, as well as the nearby Gate of Heracles and Dionysus.
Heracles shared not only infrastructural but also financial real estate with the rest of the Panhellenic pantheon–particularly with that of his half-brother, Dionysus, the god of wine. Directly linking Heracles with Thasos’ economy was his depiction on Thasian coinage.
Coins of Thasos from 500-100 BC, from the British Museum collection.
The British Museum boats an extensive collection of Thasian coins, with over 300 in their online catalogue, spanning from the 5th to 1st centuries BC.
From 500 BC to 465 BC Thasian coins shared a common theme: on the obverse showing nymphs being carried off by satyrs (mythical half-animal/half-man beings of the wilderness and rapacious inclinations), while on the reverse was a quadripartite incuse square, or tetraskelion. The cults of Dionysus and Helios/Apollo were thus implied–satyrs were staples in Dionysus’ entourage, and the tetrascele was a popular solar symbol, and agricultural one, important for a cult based on wine production.
In 411 BC we see the first representations of Heracles on Thasian coins. There is a 50 year break in continuity, however, when coinage from roughly 400 BC to 350 BC reverts back to Dionysian related imagery instead. Heracles returns to coins in 358 BC, and his image remains in circulation all the way up until 100 BC, when the Romans take over Thasos.
The British Museum’s collection reveals much about Heracles’ both inclusion and depiction on coins, and might indicate a relationship between the politico-religious spheres of Thasian society in antiquity.
However, for the sake of time, that is a subject that will have to be broached at a later date.
On Thasian coinage and sculpture, Herakles appears as an archer, which is rarer than his more iconic image wielding a club. This may be connected to Heracles’ representation “as victor over the birds of the Stymphalian lake” (Jesi and Elgi, 1964: 263); but the type may also be “a copy of the statue in Aegina” (Hands, 1907: 70).
There is a modern plaster cast on display at the Pushkin Museum in Russia, based on the circa 480 BC marble statue of Heracles from the Temple of Aphaia, on Aegina Island. The pediment statues depict two different Homeric battles at Troy: one led by Heracles, who sacked the city after rescuing Hesione and being cheated by King Laomedon, but spared its future king, Priam; and the later siege featured in the Iliad, led by Agamemnon to rescue Helen of Sparta.
The ruins of the Temple of Aphaia and the ruins of Thasos are on opposite sides of Greece. However, the Aphaia pediment statue shares similar iconography with the 510 BC Heracles Gate relief, and the 400 BC coins minted on Thasos almost a century later. This shows a visual continuity in the way Heracles was represented across the Greek landscape, and across different aspects of Greek society, be it religious or politico-economic.
(Though the Nemean Lion pelt draping Heracles’ torso is replaced with more formal battle armor, there are closeup images here and here of the original pediment sculptures on display in Munich, that more clearly show the Nemean Lion’s face as a helmet atop Heracles’ head.)
Heracles on coins elsewhere
“We do have allusions to Heracles and images of his head on the royal Macedonian coins of the second half of the 5th c. BC. However, the first mention of the cult of Heracles Patroos is found on Thasos, in Polyainos’ Strategemata describing the events of 404 BC related to Lysander, a cult perhaps related to the Thasian Theogenes, who was considered a son of Heracles…The Lacedaimonian Lysander, a Heraclid himself, was the first mortal to be given divine honours, but not in Thasos.”
Koulakiotis, “The Hellenic Impact on Ancient Macedonia,” 208.
In antiquity, Thasos was optimally situated at the center of the maritime trade routes of the Greek mainland and Aegean islands, Macedonia, Thrace, and Asia Minor. Boasting an array of natural resources and an accessible harbor, Thasos was an important trade hub, known for its marble, gold, silver, timber, nuts, olive oil, and above all, wine. Because of this, the Greek god of wine, Dionysus, was Thasos’ major patron deity.
According to Herodotus, Thasians paid “no tax on their crops, [and] drew yearly revenue from the mainland and the mines of two hundred talents on average, and three hundred when the revenue was greatest.” (Herodotus, The Histories, 6.46.3)
Herodotus attributes the presence of gold mines to the island’s settlement by the Phoenicians, and its bust;ing economy (2.44, 6.46.3, 6.47).
“I myself have seen these mines; by far the most marvelous were those that were found by the Phoenicians who with Thasos colonized this island, which is now called after that Phoenician Thasos.” (Herodotus, The Histories, 6.47.1)
Indeed, the island of Thasos and its locales had many poetic names in antiquity, many alluding to its natural resources, and its gold mines in particular. These include Chryse (Χρυσἠ, the Golden Island); Chrysi Akti (Χρυσἠ Ακτἠ, the Gold Coast); and Chrysi Amoudiá (Χρυσἠ Αμουδιά, the Golden Beach), which are used to the present day.
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