Type 42: Eros or Erotes with Standing Figure of Heracles

Eros is represented with a standing figure of Heracles on coins of Pautalia in Thracia, Bithynium-Claudiopolis and (perhaps) Nicomedia in Bithynia, and Temenothyrae in Phrygia.

* Pautalia in Thracia, very rare coins (medallions) of Antoninus Pius. The complex reverse shows Heracles standing three-quarters l., holding a torch in his extended r. and a club in his l. (with his lionskin draped over his arm), behind him to l. a column topped by a standing figure, at his feet two small Erotes.
 

* Bithynium-Claudiopolis in Bithynia, an extremely rare (unique?) coin of Caracalla in SNG von Aulock, with Heracles and Eros standing r.

* Nicomedia in Bithynia, an extremely rare (unique?) coin of Commodus, showing Heracles standing r. in something like the “Weary Heracles" pose, his r. behind his back, his l. holding his club and lionskin downwards onto an altar (?), and with a tiny figure (Eros?) fluttering in front of him (illustration). The figure has no obvious wings, and Heracles is sometimes represented holding his son Telephus, but why should Telephus be floating in the air? Eros therefore seems the most likely interpretation of the figure.

Æ 26, 8 h, 11.83 g. Obv. [A K ] M AY KO ANTΩNIN. Laureate bust r, some drapery over far shoulder. Rev. MHTP NEΩ N-I-KOM. As described above. - Previously unpublished?

* Temenothyrae in Phrygia, extremely rare coins (medallions?) of the period of Philip I, with head of the Senate on the obverse and on the reverse Heracles with Eros.

Corpus

Pautalia / Antoninus Pius (3):

1. Varbanov 4388; 2. Numismatica Ars Classica, auction 27, 2004, 409 (Æ 43, 64.25 g); 3. Triton, auction IV, 2000, 354).

Bithynium-Claudiopolis / Caracalla (1):

1. SNG von Aulock 304  (11.66 g).

Nicomedia / Caracalla (1):

1. lllustrated.

Temenothyrae / Senate (2):

1. BMC 12 (Æ 43); 2. Macdonald/Hunter, II, 494.

Type 41: Erotes with Heracles Seated

A single rare and interesting type from Heracleia Pontica in Bithynia.

* Heracleia Pontica in Bithynia, an extremely rare (unique?) and attractive coin with obverse type of bust of Heracles l., wearing a diadem and his lionskin, and with his club over his shoulder, reverse type: Heracles seated l. on a rock, his r. hand outstretched, in front of him a tree in which an Eros r. as bowman is perched and at the base of which another Eros r. is attempting to lift Heracles’s club. 

Corpus

Heracleia Pontica / Heracles (1):

1. Waddington, Recueil général, p.358, no.78 (Æ 35, in Paris).

Type 40: Eros with Aphrodite and Heracles

The next few types show Eros with Heracles. Contrasting Love and Strength was a particularly pleasing conceit, and there is a beautiful cornelian intaglio (c. first century B.C.) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, showing Eros binding Heracles’s hands behind his back. We have already seen references to the “Love conquers all” theme in Types 6 (where Eros adopts the “Weary Heracles” pose), 16 (Eros sleeping on the captured lionskin of Heracles), 19 (Erotes playing with the club of Heracles), and 22 and 23 (Eros with Heracles’s lion).

* Pergamum in Mysia, an extremely rare coin of Lucius Verus, showing Eros and a half-naked Aphrodite attempting to draw a seated Heracles down from his rock. 

Corpus

Pergamum / Lucius Verus (1):

1.Bernhart, Aphrodite, 348 (Æ 41) = Mionnet, Supplement V, p.444, no.1023.