Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 81 25 Feb 2021
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Elagabalus BI Tetradrachm of Alexandria, Egypt. RY 2 = AD 218/9. Α ΚΑΙϹΑΡ ΜA ΑΥΡ ΑΝΤѠΝΙΝΟϹ ЄΥϹЄΒ, laureate head to right / Hermanubis standing to right wearing kalathos, holding winged caduceus and palm branch, jackal behind to left, head to right; L-B (date) across fields. RPC VI Online 10031 (temporary); Dattari (Savio) 9814; Emmett 2936.2. 15.08g, 26mm, 12h.
Good Very Fine. Very Rare; RPC cites only 5 examples and there are no others on CoinArchives.
Auctioned in association with and on behalf of Numismática Lucernae, Jaén.
In his paper entitled "The Onomastic Evidence for the God Hermanubis" (Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology, 2007), Amin Benaissa succinctly describes the conflation of the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Anubis: "Hermanubis is known from a handful of epigraphic and literary sources, mostly of the Roman period. Plutarch cites the name as a designation of Anubis in his under-worldly aspect (De Is. et Os. 375e), while Porphyry refers to Hermanubis as 'composite,' and 'half-Greek' (De imaginibus fr. 8, p. 18.1–2 Bidez). The name has been restored in a second-century BC dedicatory inscription from Delos (ID 2156.2), which would be its earliest attestation, but otherwise it appears in three inscriptions of the Roman period, two from Egypt and one from Thessalonike. It is clear that the name is a result of the assimilation of the Egyptian god Anubis to the Greek god Hermes, which is well attested in a number of literary, epigraphic, and artistic sources. Although Hermes was traditionally equated with the Egyptian Thoth, his function as psychopompos encouraged his association with Anubis given the latter's comparable funerary role in Egyptian religion as embalmer and guardian of the dead and as leader of the deceased to the tribunal of Osiris. This assimilation resulted in widespread Greco-Roman representations of the canine-headed Anubis with attributes of the Greek Hermes, such as the distinctive staff known as the kerykeion or winged sandals. In Roman Alexandria there emerges a new iconographical type, well represented in coins and sculpture, in which a fully anthropomorphic young god is flanked by a dog and holds the same attributes as the said Anubis, in addition to wearing the kalathos headdress. It is this type that art historians have traditionally labelled 'Hermanubis'."
Good Very Fine. Very Rare; RPC cites only 5 examples and there are no others on CoinArchives.
Auctioned in association with and on behalf of Numismática Lucernae, Jaén.
In his paper entitled "The Onomastic Evidence for the God Hermanubis" (Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology, 2007), Amin Benaissa succinctly describes the conflation of the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god Anubis: "Hermanubis is known from a handful of epigraphic and literary sources, mostly of the Roman period. Plutarch cites the name as a designation of Anubis in his under-worldly aspect (De Is. et Os. 375e), while Porphyry refers to Hermanubis as 'composite,' and 'half-Greek' (De imaginibus fr. 8, p. 18.1–2 Bidez). The name has been restored in a second-century BC dedicatory inscription from Delos (ID 2156.2), which would be its earliest attestation, but otherwise it appears in three inscriptions of the Roman period, two from Egypt and one from Thessalonike. It is clear that the name is a result of the assimilation of the Egyptian god Anubis to the Greek god Hermes, which is well attested in a number of literary, epigraphic, and artistic sources. Although Hermes was traditionally equated with the Egyptian Thoth, his function as psychopompos encouraged his association with Anubis given the latter's comparable funerary role in Egyptian religion as embalmer and guardian of the dead and as leader of the deceased to the tribunal of Osiris. This assimilation resulted in widespread Greco-Roman representations of the canine-headed Anubis with attributes of the Greek Hermes, such as the distinctive staff known as the kerykeion or winged sandals. In Roman Alexandria there emerges a new iconographical type, well represented in coins and sculpture, in which a fully anthropomorphic young god is flanked by a dog and holds the same attributes as the said Anubis, in addition to wearing the kalathos headdress. It is this type that art historians have traditionally labelled 'Hermanubis'."