TWO TYPES OF TYRAS COINS FROM THE LATE HELLENISTIC PERIOD (religious aspect)

Abstract

The history of the study of Tyras pre-Roman coins which began more than 170 years ago is briefly observed in the paper. Among them two types have been identified dated by well-known researchers quite ambiguously. Based on the relative chronology accepted by most scholars the authors attribut the types of coin under consideration to the Late Hellenistic period. The first type features a front-facing head of Demeter wearing a wreath of wheat ears on the obverse, and a woven cista — a sacred attribute of the goddess — on the reverse. The second type depicts a veiled profile head of Demeter on the obverse. According to our interpretation, the reverse does not show a kalathos or a vessel with a poppy stem but rather a densely woven cista of a different shape and larger size. The authors also characterize the image of Demeter and analyze her cultic attributes: the woven cista, the wheat-ear wreath and ears, and the veil — linking these symbols in the development of agriculture. A new approach to interpreting the cista — a unique attribute of the goddess for the ancient cities of the Northern Pontic region — alongside related deities and symbols, allows us to associate it with the Eleusinian Mysteries, which were likely conducted in the temple of Tyras as well. As for the prototype of Demeter’s image, it is suggested that it may be either a copy of a monumental temple statue in Tyras or inspired by key elements of large bronze drachms from Olbia Pontica. Attention is also given to contemporary cistophory-coins of the Pergam Kingdom and various Asia Minor cities, which display the cistae entwined with snakes and ivy — attributes of Dionysus. However, whether these coins, widely circulated throughout many regions of the Hellenistic world during the 2nd century BC, influenced the minting of the Tyras coin types in question, remains a subject for further numismatic research based on a broader range of sources.