Obolos 16

CORINTHIA. Corinth. Hadrian, 117-138. Assarion (Bronze, 21.5 mm, 8.43 g, 5 h), 117-128. [IMP CAES TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG] Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Hadrian to right. Rev. COL [IVL ADV(?) AVG C]OR Hermes advancing to right, wearing petasos, and chlamys which billows out behind him, carrying the infant Dionysos on his left arm. BCD Corinth 614 = RPC III 206.2 (this coin). NCP p. 21, 18 corr (incorrectly identified as Trajan). Greenish brown patina. Very fine.

From the Vineyard Collection, and from the BCD Collection, Lanz 105, 26 November 2001, 614.

Dionysos was the son of Zeus and Semele. Hera, jealous of her husband's infidelity, disguised herself as Semele's nurse and caused Semele to become curious as to the true identity of her lover, who she had not hitherto known as Zeus had always gone to her in disguise. When he finally revealed himself, she was consumed to ashes by his brilliance. Zeus thereupon took their unborn child Dionysos and nurtured him until he he was ready to be born. Once he was born, Zeus placed him under Hermes' protection as a safeguard against Hera's jealousy. The reverse of this coin depicts the moment when Hermes took the baby to Io, Semele's sister, to leave in her care. In 1877 a beautiful statue of the highest quality Parian marble and considered by some to be a work of the famous artist Praxiteles was discovered among the ruins of the Temple of Hera at Olympia, which had been destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the third century during the reign of Diocletian. The statue shows the god Hermes leaning against a tree trunk and holding the infant Dionysos upon his arm, depicted similarly to how he is on this coin. The association with the artist Praxiteles is strongly disputed by many art historians and classicists, but is nonetheless supported by a passing mention in Pausanias.