Type 05: Eros Holding a Torch Crossways

Eros standing facing, head turned r. and holding to r. a long torch crossways with both hands (on some coins the type is reversed). 

This type can be found on coins from Aphrodisias in Caria.

The coin of Gordian III from Heracleia Pontica in Bithynia supposedly with Eros holding a torch with both hands (SNG v. Aulock 423, also LIMC 375) actually shows the infant Heracles with club and lionskin, and is correctly described as such—despite being “non revue”—in Waddington’s Recueil général (p.379, footnote 1). 

A coin of Marcus Aurelius from Colybrassus in Cilicia (RPC IV,9334) shows a naked man holding a torch crossways—the figure might be Eros (or Helios).

The illustration above is of a Hadrianic-Antonine sarcophagus in Rome on which a variety of Erotes may be seen, including two torchbearers with torches held crossways.

* Aphrodisias in Caria, c.209-220, obv.: Bust of Boulé.

 

Æ 19 (half assarion), 6 h, 3.98 g. Obv. IEPA BOYΛH. Bust of  Boulé veiled and draped r. Rev. AΦΡΟΔEICIEΩN. Eros standing facing, head turned r. and holding to r. a long torch crossways with both hands.

Æ 20, 6 h, 3.45 g. Similar.

Æ 20. Similar (Private collection, photos by permission).

Æ 20, 6 h, 5.32 g. Similar, but with the reverse type to l., and Eros with billowing chlamys. 

CATALOGUE

Aphrodisias / Boulé
References: RPC IV, 2, 2080*, 2081* and 2235* (Eros turned to r. or l.)
Rarity: Common