Type 24: Miscellaneous Erotes

Eros also appears on Greek, Parthian, Roman Republican and Roman Imperial coins, as well as on small non-numismatic items such as seals, clay seal impressions, gemstones, tesserae or pottery, and a few of these have been included on the pages devoted to specific Eros “types” on Provincial coins. The present page, for the time being misleadingly named “Type 24”, is a ragbag of items showing Eros or Cupid in a manner or engaged in activities that are not to my knowledge represented on Provincial issues.

 

Further information can be found in M. Rostowzew, Tesserarum Urbis Romae et Suburbi Plumbearum Sylloge (St. Petersburg, 1903); M. Overbeck, Römische Bleimarken in der Staatlichen Münzsammlung München (Munich, 1995); O. Gülbay & H. Kireç, Efes Kurşun Tesseraelari / Ephesian Lead Tesserae (Selçuk, 2008); James H. Schwartz, “Engraved gems in the collection of the American Numismatic Society II: Intaglios with Eros”, in the American Journal of Numismatics, 11, 1999, pp.13-45; Clay Seal Impressions of Zeugma (Gaziantep, 2007);  K. Emmett, Alexandrian Coins (Lodi, WI, 2001); and so on.

 

 

 


Eros is shown in NAVAL CONTEXTS, for example on the reverse of late third century B.C. bronzes of Barium, Apulia, crouching on the prow of a ship and drawing his bow (photos courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group).

 




He is also on the reverse of Roman Republican bronze coins issued by L. Memmius Galeria in 106 B.C., where he is reaching up to crown the prow of a vessel decorated with the head of Venus (photo courtesy of Andrew McCabe). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is Eros the MUSICIAN. Here is the attractive reverse type of Eros playing on a cithara or lyre on coins of Hyria (Orra), Calabria, c. 219-89 B.C. (two variants of the reverse are shown). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lovely signet ring (fourth century?) shows Eros tuning a cithara (photos courtesy of Ancient Caesar). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A lead seal shows a seated Eros playing the lyre on one side, and an eagle, head turned back and  a wreath in its beak, on the other (photos courtesy of Gert Boersema).
 

 

 

 

 

 

Gert Boersema also drew my attention to this uniface lead seal, with Eros playing or tuning a lyre or cithara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eros is shown on Provincial coins riding a dolphins (Type 21) or a lion (Type 22), though not on horseback, but on this tiny Roman cornelian gemstone from a signet ring he is riding a HORSE (photo courtesy of Gert Boersema).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this lead seal he is riding a COCKEREL (cockerels were seen as being very highly sexed). I am grateful to Clive Stannard for pointing out that this type also appears on the reverse of Italian tesserae of the first century B.C., and occasionally on ceramics and gemstones. There is no obvious numismatic precedent for the type, and he suggests that it may be an image from popular culture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is such a tessera, with Heracles and the Ceryneian Hind on the reverse (Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co. KG, Osnabrück, http://www.kuenker.de/, photos courtesy of Lübke & Wiedemann KG, Stuttgart).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, by courtesy of Jos Hemmes, is a charming marble statuette showing Eros actually holding a cockerel. Like hares (see Type 15), cocks were favoured as love-gifts to boys from their older admirers. Judith M. Barringer (The Hunt in Ancient Greece, 2001) has pointed out how such animal gifts underscore hunting as a metaphor for sexual pursuit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this lead seal (photo courtesy of Münz Zentrum Rheinland), Eros is shown riding a GRYLLOS, a mythical creature that is part human, part animal: a horse (?) with the face of Silenus (the head of the animal might however be that of a goat rather than a horse), with the whole ensemble supported by what could be tiny horse-legs but looks more like a little elephant standing on ram’s horns! Grylloi were magical and talismanic, and are often found on ancient seals and gems.

 

 

 

 

 

On this tiny Roman agate gemstone from a signet ring (photo courtesy of Gert Boersema) Eros is trying to snare a SWAN (the swan being one of the birds associated with Aphrodite, along with the dove, the goose, the sparrow, and the iynx). He may not find it easy, and in a moment Eros himself, who traps humans in love, may ironically be tangled in his own snare.  

 

 

 

 

 

On this Roman lead seal, Eros is stroking a swan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a lead tessera from Egypt, ascribed (logically enough) by Milne to Aphroditopolis, with Eros advancing l. / Hippocamp to r. But what is Eros doing here (or, what is he advancing on?). Clive Stannard has drawn my attention to a charming lead piece in the British Museum that shows Eros, in a similar pose, sneaking up on a GRASSHOPPER (a type also known from gemstones).Or is he hunting a HARE (see Type 15)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This small terracotta shows a seated Eros holding a GOOSE, a popular motif in many variants perhaps originally nspired by a famous scuplture by Boethos of Chalcedon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This large lead seal shows Eros l. with PAN r. (Numismatik Lanz, photo courtesy of Lübke & Wiedemann KG).

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there are few “stand-alone” figures of Eros on ancient coins before the Roman imperial period. A few rare Roman Republican silver coins spring to mind, such as the unique quinarius (Julia 7) showing Cupid breaking a THUNDERBOLT over his knee—Cupid is an indirect reference to the connection between the Julian gens and the goddess Venus, and the breaking of Jupiter’s thunderbolt might be an illustration of the “Love conquers all” theme, parallel to Eros playing with the weapons of Heracles, see Type 19), or at least of Eros’s fearless playfulness.



 


Also, the extremely rare AR sestertii of Mn. Cordius Rufus (46 B.C.), with Eros running, holding the VICTOR’S WREATH AND PALM, here two variants (photos courtesy of Andrew McCabe).

 

 

On coins of Sulla (84-83 B.C.), Cupid holds a palm-branch facing the diademed head of Venus;

 

 

 

 

On this crude lead tessera from Rome, Eros is standing l., holding a filleted wreath in his r. hand and with his l. tucked behind him in the “weary Heracles” pose (see Type 6) (the other side of the tessera shows a palm-branch),
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

while on this one, Eros is holding a wreath in his r. and a strigil (?) in his l. If the uncertain object is indeed a strigil, that would indicate a connection to a bath-house. One suggestion, because of the wreaths on both sides, is that the tessera evokes a successful sportsman (charioteer or gladiator), favoured also in love (lots of lady admirers) and about to enjoy a visit to the baths after his exertions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this lead seal, a tiny Eros is advancing l., holding a wreath (or a whip).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Roman spintria (“brothel token”)  shows Eros advancing with a SWORD (photos courtesy of Ancient Byways).
Some readers of this blog have expressed doubts about the genuineness of this item. It is often difficult of course to be sure without being able to examine the piece “in hand”—though spintriae, which tend to command inflated prices on the market, have been faked very frequently. 

 

 

 

 

 


Figures of Eros can be found on small (and rare) Æ of some of the kings of PARTHIA, e.g. Phraates IV (38-2 B.C.) and Artabanus II (10-38, shown here; for photographs of other such coins see the ANS website).

There is a most peculiar reverse type on certain  Æ coins of Gallienus from Serdica, showing a winged male figure holding uncertain objects. The cataloguers of this type (Moushmov, Ruzicka, Varbanov and Hristova/Jekov) offer diverging identifications of the figure (Genius (Apollo?); winged Genius; winged male figure; Genius) and of the object held in its extended r. (nothing; a small figure with mantle and raised hand; a statuette; a Muse). I shall go out on a limb and suggest that the figure is Harpocrates, or a “Harpocratic Eros”, for the following reasons: 

(1) The shape of the head 

(2) The object held in the extended r. looks to me like a hawk 

(3) The object held in the lowered l. might be a branch, likewise an attribute of Harpocrates, rather than a bow, quiver, arrows, etc. 

(4) Winged “Harpocratic Erotes” are not unknown in ancient art 

(5) Isis, Sarapis and Harpocrates all appear on coins of Serdica. 

This leaves the reverse inscription ΦΙΛΟΜΟΥCΟC unexplained, of course. If it is not a personal name (and why should it be, on a late coin of Serdica?), could it be a reference to Apollo (but why not then portray Apollo, rather than an ambiguous winged figure?) or even a flattering reference to the emperor (but wouldn’t that be on the obverse, like the mysterious epithet ΧPΥCΟΓΟΝΗ sometimes given to his wife Salonina, unless the reverse actually showed Gallienus?). 
The coin illustrated here is Æ 27, 1 h, 20.32 g (Private collection, photos by permission).

 




A small uniface lead, Roman, but of uncertain origin, shows two cherubic Erotes who are possibly PROCESSING METAL. The design is uncertain, although there is an almost identical motif on a lead tessera from Thessalonica, sold by CNG and illustrated on Wildwinds, and interpreted by the CNG cataloguer as “two winged Cupids bending over a crucible, crushing ore with a pestle” so that it can be processed into metal.

 

On this large (48 x 48) Roman weight, Eros is shown advancing r. and holding out a PURSE—in a commercial, perhaps money-changing, context, a wholly appropriate attribute for him to have. This was in a group of large weights that included items from Cyzicus or Alexandreia Troas and one with an early Christian motif, suggesting that it may be Late Roman and from Asia Minor.

 

 

 

 

 

Although no Provincial coins have yet come to light that show Eros with NIKE, he appears on several of the so-called Aboukir medallions, struck in gold in the first half of the 3rd century, perhaps at Beroea in Macedonia or Perinthus in Thracia, and found at Aboukir near Alexandreia, and is represented helping to support a shield held by Nike.

 

A similar motif (though with Victoria seated) appears quite frequently on late Roman gold coins, here on a solidus of Constantius II (photos courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., www.cngcoins.com). The little figure is usually described by cataloguers as a Genius, or sometimes even as a smaller Victoria (despite being naked), distracting from the interesting thought that here is yet another instance of the survival of pagan types and motifs in Roman iconography long after the triumph of Christianity (the appearance of the Tyche of Antioch on Byzantine bronzes is another example).

 

Finally, Clive Stannard’s fascinating provisional catalogue of the Local Coinages of Central Italy in the Late Roman Republic (2007) contains a number of Æs and struck leads with images of Cupid/Eros: Bust of Cupid (series 5a, cf. Type 1); Cupid shooting an arrow (5b, cf. Type 4); Cupid with two torches (17a,c, cf. Type 6); Cupid bound to a column and awaiting chastisement (35a-c, see description at Type 55); Cupid seated r. (86); Cupid striding r. with bow and arrow (102a-b); Cupid on lion r. (117, cf. Type 22); a boy (not obviously winged) on a dolphin l. (197, cf. Type 21).

 

 

 

 

CATALOGUE

Serdica / Gallienus
References: Moushmov 4955; Ruzicka 479 var.; Varbanov 2636; Hristova/Jekov 12.46.41.1
Rarity: RR