Nomos AG
obolos 13 2 Jul 2019
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CORINTHIA. Corinth. Antoninus Pius, 138-161. As (Bronze, 21 mm, 5.85 g, 12 h). ANTONINVS AVG PIVS Laureate head of Antoninus Pius to right. Rev. C L I COR Female figure (Laetitia?) standing, facing, her head turned to left, wearing a tall headress, and holding, with her outstretched right hand, a patera (?) over a burning altar to her left, and with her left, the shaft of an anchor. Cf. BCD Corinth 676 = RPC IV online 9483 (temporary number). Very rare, perhaps the second -and better- example known. For the identification of the reverse type, see the note below. Very fine.
In the RPC the description, taken from BCD, reads as follows: Isis standing, facing, head, l., wearing lotus, holding situla over altar and sistrum(?). However, when these two coins are carefully compared, and despite their condition, it seems clear that while their obverses may have been struck from the same die, their reverses very definitely have not been! Exactly what the BCD coin's reverse figure is holding is anyone's guess (it certainly could be the situla and sistrum they say it is), but our figure is surely holding a patera and an anchor (the anchor ring can be seen very faintly at the end of the shaft above the figure's left hand). So who is this woman? If the 'patera' is actually a wreath she could well be Laetitia, who does hold a wreath and an anchor; for the Roman colony of Corinth such a figure would be appropriate. To our knowledge there is no true Greek equivalent of Laetitia other than, perhaps, Euphrosyne; though she is portrayed differently. Perhaps what we have here is some kind of Graeco-Roman composite deity?.
In the RPC the description, taken from BCD, reads as follows: Isis standing, facing, head, l., wearing lotus, holding situla over altar and sistrum(?). However, when these two coins are carefully compared, and despite their condition, it seems clear that while their obverses may have been struck from the same die, their reverses very definitely have not been! Exactly what the BCD coin's reverse figure is holding is anyone's guess (it certainly could be the situla and sistrum they say it is), but our figure is surely holding a patera and an anchor (the anchor ring can be seen very faintly at the end of the shaft above the figure's left hand). So who is this woman? If the 'patera' is actually a wreath she could well be Laetitia, who does hold a wreath and an anchor; for the Roman colony of Corinth such a figure would be appropriate. To our knowledge there is no true Greek equivalent of Laetitia other than, perhaps, Euphrosyne; though she is portrayed differently. Perhaps what we have here is some kind of Graeco-Roman composite deity?.