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Dossier: Nommer les dieux en Syrie gréco-romaine. Paysages onomastiques et dynamiques religieuses

The Youthful Heracles-Melqart in Tyre. Choosing a Visual Language for a Phoenician God in the Hellenistic Period

Le jeune Héraclès-Melqart à Tyr. Choisir un langage visuel pour un dieu phénicien à l'époque hellénistique
Achim Lichtenberger

Résumés

Les émissions d’argent d’époque hellénistique de Tyr, qui représentent la tête d’un Héraclès-Melqart jeune et musclé sur l’avers, sont largement utilisées au Levant ancien. Dans le présent article, cette image d’Héraclès est discutée et contextualisée au sein de la vie religieuse de Tyr. On défend l’idée que l’image a été influencée par les représentations d’Héraclès liées à Alexandre le Grand et qu’elle met en évidence l’idée que Melqart était un dieu jeune. Le langage visuel de l’image figurée sur les monnaies combine plusieurs aspects et suscite différentes idées chez le spectateur, contribuant à sa popularité.

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Texte intégral

  • 1 Du Mesnil du Buisson 1963; Bonnet 1988.

1The most important deity of the city of Tyre in Phoenicia was Melqart (“king of the city”).1 The Phoenician city god was identified by Greeks and Romans as Heracles. An abundance of sources bear witness to the position and importance of this deity in the city, among them coins. In the Hellenistic and Early Roman period, the silver coins of Tyre were among the most sought-after and accepted currencies in the southern Levant and even the Temple tax in Jerusalem was paid with these coins. The tetradrachm and its fractions (didrachms) depict the characteristic head of the youthful Heracles-Melqart on the obverse (Fig. 1). This paper sets out to discuss the visual language of the image of the deity and to deepen our understanding of the specific historical situation in which such an image was created.

Fig. 1: Tetradrachm of Tyre, 90/89 BC (year 37), 14.35 gr; 30 mm. Obv.: Head of Heracles-Melqart to r.; Rev.: Eagle, standing on prow

Fig. 1: Tetradrachm of Tyre, 90/89 BC (year 37), 14.35 gr; 30 mm. Obv.: Head of Heracles-Melqart to r.; Rev.: Eagle, standing on prow

Gorny & Mosch Auction 236, 7 March 2016, lot 293

Written sources on cults of Tyre

  • 2 Chuvin 1991, 224-254; Bannert 2016, 279-282.

2According to literary evidence, Heracles-Melqart was the city god of Tyre. Here he had his most important temple on the island, but there was – at least at the arrival of Alexander the Great –another temple of Heracles, too, in Palaityros on the mainland. According to Pliny (Plin. NH XXXVII 5, 75) and earlier Herodotus (Hdt. II 44), the temple was furnished with two stone stelae and there was also a stone throne (Plin. NH XXXVII 10, 161). Herodotus reports that Heracles was the interpretatio graeca of Melqart, the Phoenician city god of Tyre. Imperial and late antique authors mention Heracles-Melqart, and the most detailed description is found in the author Nonnus of Panopolis in the 5th century AD, who in his Dionysiaca describes the relationship of Dionysus and Heracles to Tyre.2

  • 3 Rey-Coquais 2006, 17-18 no. 1. Also, another Hellenistic inscription, which is very fragmented ment (...)
  • 4 Chéhab 1962, 16-17; Yon, Aliquot 2016, 151-152 no. 306.
  • 5 Du Mesnil du Buisson 1963, 161. On “holy” as epiclesis of Semitic deities cf. Xella 2006, 484-485.
  • 6 Chéhab 1962, 18-19 ; du Mesnil du Buisson 1963, 161 ; Rey-Coquais 2012, 32 ; Yon, Aliquot 2016, 154 (...)
  • 7 Lichtenberger 2003, 57 and the nuanced discussion by Belayche 2020, 93-103.
  • 8 Rey-Coquais 2012, 32.
  • 9 Cf., for example, Chéhab 1962, 18-19 and the critical assessment by Aliquot 2006.

3Inscriptions from Tyre name a whole set of deities worshipped in the city. Several inscriptions bear witness to Heracles. A Hellenistic inscription, dated 188/187 BC, mentions Heracles together with Hermes as tutelar deities of the gymnasium.3 An inscription found near the Crusader church dates to 54/55 AD and mentions a dedication to Theos Hagios Herakles.4 The specification as “holy god” fits well into a Semitic setting and refers to the Phoenician Heracles-Melqart.5 In a Severan inscription, Heracles is mentioned together with the goddess Leukothea.6 Here the god is addressed as Kyrios Herakles, and this emphasis on being “lord” again belongs to a Semitic milieu.7 Leukothea is addressed as Thea Leukothea, and once again such emphasis on being a goddess is common in a Semitic setting.8 Leukothea is a goddess who is well attested in Phoenicia. Although she bears a Greek name, she is considered by some scholars to be a hypostasis of the local Atargatis.9

  • 10 Rey-Coquais 1977, 1-3 no. 1; Bikai, Fulco, Marchand 1996, 2-4; Gatier 2016, 170.
  • 11 Cf. Rey-Coquais 1977, 3; Aliquot 2009, 132.
  • 12 Stucky 1984, 46; Bonnet 2015, 203, 217-218, 228-245.
  • 13 Bikai, Fulco, Marchand 1996.
  • 14 Rey-Coquais 2006, 19 no. 4.
  • 15 Plut. Alex. XXIV 4-9; Curtius Rufus IV 3, 21–22. Cf. also Plut. Quaest. Rom. 61; on the siege: Arr. (...)
  • 16 Diod. XIII 108.

4Apollo is mentioned in an inscription from the year 28/29 AD and is named Apollon Kyrios, with further honorary titles.10 The honorary title kyrios, which is otherwise rather unusual for Apollo, appears to refer to the fact that this Apollo is addressed like a Semitic deity.11 In neighboring Sidon, Apollo may be an interpretation graeca of Eshmun.12 The inscription in Tyre mentions a skene, that is, a “tent” or “shack”, and Bikai, Fulco, and Marchand identify this building with a small open court sanctuary in the necropolis of al-Bass.13 Apollo and Artemis are also mentioned together in another inscription from Tyre.14 Furthermore, a statue of Apollo plays a prominent role in connection with the siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great. A dream revelation announced that the god would change to Alexander’s side and the Tyrians therefore reacted by driving nails into the cult image.15 Apollo was said to have come previously to Tyre from the Greek world after the conquest of Gela in Sicily by the Carthaginians.16

  • 17 Rey-Coquais 2006, 18-19 no. 3.
  • 18 Rey-Coquais 2006, 19-20 no. 5.
  • 19 Rey-Coquais 2006, 23-24 no. 9.
  • 20 Du Mesnil du Buisson 1963, 162; Rey-Coquais 2006, 21-23 no. 8.
  • 21 Rey-Coquais 2006, 20-21 no. 7; Yon, Aliquot 2016, 162-163 no. 326.
  • 22 Rey-Coquais 2006, 20 no. 6.

5Further inscriptions speak of dedications to the Dioscuri,17 Sarapis,18 the Urania,19 the Agathe Tyche of Tyre,20 the holy god of Sarepta21 and the local gods of an unknown place (Thebnein).22 In the case of Tyche and Urania, mention is even made of priests, suggesting an established cult and not merely individual piety.

6The epigraphic evidence shows a diverse religious life in imperial Tyre. Heracles-Melqart is well attested as the most important urban god, but other deities, often with a local Semitic way of naming them, are also known.

The civic coinage of Tyre

  • 23 On the coinage of Tyros cf. Rouvier 1903; Rouvier 1904; BMC Phoenicia.
  • 24 Cf. Syon 2015.

7The city of Tyre first minted its own city coins during the Persian period (Fig. 2) and then from 126/125 BC after it had received civic autonomy from the Seleucid kings.23 Most widespread are types depicting the head of Heracles and the head of Tyche as well as nautical symbols and the palm tree. From 126/125 BC onwards, the silver and bronze currency circulated widely in the southern Levant. These types continued into the imperial period, too. The civic silver fell out of use in the 1st century AD, while the traditional bronze types continued until the foundation of the Roman colony under Septimius Severus. With the colonial coinage, the character of the bronze coins changed fundamentally. While the pre-colonial coinage had a very limited number of types, the colonial coins are characterized by a wide variety of reverse types. Also remarkable is the longevity of minting. While many cities of the region already ceased minting in the Severan period, Tyre continued until the reigns of Valerianus and Gallienus (253-268 AD), with the large number of coins during this period probably serving for regional small change supply, a fact that underlines the enduring importance of Tyrian currency in the southern Levant.24

Fig. 2: Shekel of Tyre, 4th century BC, 8.64 gr; 20 mm. Obv.: Bearded rider with bow on hippocamp to r.; Rev.: Owl with crook and flail

Fig. 2: Shekel of Tyre, 4th century BC, 8.64 gr; 20 mm. Obv.: Bearded rider with bow on hippocamp to r.; Rev.: Owl with crook and flail

Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 375, 1 June 2016, lot 16

The youthful Heracles of Tyre

  • 25 Rouvier 1903, 296-313 no. 1946-2121.
  • 26 BMC Phoenicia CXXXVII; Hanson 1980, 24; Iossif 2011, esp. 213.
  • 27 One reason for this adoption of a Ptolemaic image may be the dominance of Ptolemaic tetradrachms in (...)
  • 28 Iossif 2011, 213 interprets the palm branch, which also appears on the coins of Sidon, as a symbol (...)
  • 29 Cf. Lichtenberger 2003, 47 n. 214.
  • 30 Cf. an altar in Tyros (Cumont 1927, 163-167) and reliefs in Kedesh (Fischer, Ovadiah, Roll 1984, 16 (...)

8The characteristic image of the silver coinage of Tyre is the youthful Heracles on the obverse and the standing eagle on the reverse.25 The bird follows the tradition of eagles in Ptolemaic coinage (Fig. 3)26 and is also depicted on the reverses of the silver coinage in the royal mint of Tyre under the Seleucids.27 It carries, as the Ptolemaic eagle often does, a palm branch on its back28 and in its talons it holds, since Seleucid times, a ship’s prow as a reference to Tyre’s location by the sea. The eagle in a Phoenician context may well refer not only – as with the Ptolemies – to Zeus, but also to local supreme deities.29 Eagles are repeatedly attested in the sacred iconography in the urban area and in the hinterland of Tyre.30

Fig. 3: Posthumous tetradrachm of Ptolemy I, Tyre mint, 305/283 BC, 13,92 gr; 26 mm. Obv.: Diademed head of Ptolemy I to r.; Rev.: Eagle standing od thunderbolt, in field l. club

Fig. 3: Posthumous tetradrachm of Ptolemy I, Tyre mint, 305/283 BC, 13,92 gr; 26 mm. Obv.: Diademed head of Ptolemy I to r.; Rev.: Eagle standing od thunderbolt, in field l. club

Hirsch, Auction 348, 8 May 2019, lot 474

9Of particular interest is the image of the youthful Heracles, which appears in coinage from 126/125 BC (Fig. 1). The head of Heracles is shown to the right as youthful and beardless. On his head Heracles wears a laurel wreath and around his very broad neck he has the lion’s skin wrapped. His main head of hair is indicated with short but thick strands, while a long, wavy curl falls to the side at the temple. Heracles is beefy in appearance, with a heavy, drooping lower jaw and prominent chin. The nose is steep, the angles of the small mouth drooping, and often the lower forehead is swollen, the orbitals curved and contracted. The eyes are wide open. The overall brawny image is formally underlined by the coin flan that is always too small when compared to the die. This image of Heracles is characteristic of Tyre, and although there are variations, the basic type of the beardless, youthful, brawny Heracles with laurel wreath, side curls, and lion’s skin remains constant throughout some 200 years.

  • 31 BMC Phoenicia 229; Bonnet 1988, 85 n. 264; Bonnet 2015, 401.
  • 32 Dunand, Duru 1962, 159 pl. XXXIII.2. The statue Dunand, Duru 1962, 159 pl. XXXV.4, which can be ide (...)

10The local god of Tyre, Melqart, has been equated with the Greek Heracles, at the least since Herodotus. For this reason, it can be assumed that this Heracles on the coins is indeed Heracles-Melqart. There are no confirmed Heracles-Melqart images from Tyre in the period between Herodotus and the silver coins dating from 126/125 BC. It has been suggested that the bearded hippocampus rider on the silver coins from the Persian period relates to Melqart (Fig. 2),31 but there is no identification with the iconography of the Greek Heracles and it remains unclear whether Melqart is depicted here at all. A bearded head (Fig. 4) exists from the Hellenistic sanctuary of Umm el-Amed close to Tyre, upon which the Tyrian Heracles-Melqart may be represented. However, this attribution remains uncertain, since clear attributes are missing and the iconographic indication would be the beardedness alone, which, in the case of Heracles, may also lead us down the fruitless avenue of a circular argument.32

Fig. 4: Limestone head of bearded male, height 12 cm (Dunand, Duru 1962, pl. XXXIII.2). From Umm el-Amed (Lebanon)

Fig. 4: Limestone head of bearded male, height 12 cm (Dunand, Duru 1962, pl. XXXIII.2). From Umm el-Amed (Lebanon)
  • 33 Cf. above, n. 3.
  • 34 Pirenne-Delforge, Bonnet 2003.

11The Greek Heracles is a popular god who is often depicted in mythological scenes and enjoys cultic veneration. It is striking that such cultic veneration in Greece is mostly limited to certain segments of private and public life, for example as god of the gymnasium,33 and Heracles is rather rarely worshipped as a main city god. In Tyre, the position as city god can be explained by his position as interpretatio graeca of Melqart, the “king of the city”.34

  • 35 Boardman et al. 1988; Boardman et al. 1990. On the youthful Heracles cf. Özen-Kleine 2008, 152-160.
  • 36 Özen-Kleine 2008, 154.
  • 37 Kansteiner 2000.
  • 38 Most famously the Heracles Farnese of Lysippos, cf. Krull 1985.

12In Greek iconography there are two basic types of Heracles: on the one hand the youthful beardless god, on the other hand the mature bearded Heracles.35 Both types of Heracles occur side by side in vase painting in the classical period. The youthful, beardless type is encountered especially in the mythological representations that stand at the beginning of the labors of Heracles, for example, in the battle with the Nemean lion.36 The beardlessness is thus a means of characterizing Heracles as youthful. In round sculpture, the youthful Heracles gains in popularity from the 4th century BC onwards through the works of the sculptors Skopas (Fig. 5) and Lysippos.37 Here, too, it can be observed that representations of the first labors of Heracles rather show the beardless hero, while representations of the late labors, such as the resting Heracles with the apples of the Hesperides, feature the matured bearded man (Fig. 6).38

Fig. 5: Heracles Lansdowne, copy of a work by Skopas, marble cast in the Archaeological Museum of Münster University.

Fig. 5: Heracles Lansdowne, copy of a work by Skopas, marble cast in the Archaeological Museum of Münster University.

Fig. 6: Heracles Farnese, copy of a work by Lysippos, National Archaeological Museum Naples

Fig. 6: Heracles Farnese, copy of a work by Lysippos, National Archaeological Museum Naples

© Wikicommons, Marie-Lan Nguyen

  • 39 Price 1991, esp. 31. The idea of recognizing a portrait of Alexander in the image of Heracles canno (...)
  • 40 The type of both the bearded and beardless Heracles is also attested in earlier Macedonian kings. C (...)
  • 41 Duyrat 2016, 331.
  • 42 Duyrat 2016, 349-366.

13The youthful Heracles was particularly widespread in coinage during the time of Alexander the Great, who placed the head of the young Heracles with a lion’s skin pulled over his head on the obverse of tetradrachms issued throughout his empire (Fig. 7).39 This youthful image of Heracles lies within the tradition of royal Macedonian coinage and was well established there before Alexander.40 The type of Alexander’s imperial coinage was also minted at the Tyre mint after Alexander’s conquest of Tyre.41 However, it must be stressed that the Alexander coins – although widespread in Northern Syria until the mid-2nd century BC – were not any more in currency in Phoenicia since the beginning of Ptolemaic rule.42

Fig. 7: Posthumous tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, Tyre mint, 322/321 BC, 17.16 gr; 26.5 mm. Obv.: Head of Heracles with lion skin to r.; Rev.: Zeus with eagle seated to l

Fig. 7: Posthumous tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, Tyre mint, 322/321 BC, 17.16 gr; 26.5 mm. Obv.: Head of Heracles with lion skin to r.; Rev.: Zeus with eagle seated to l

Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 428, 5 September 2018, lot 91

14Consistent with the later civic coinage of Tyre, the Heracles of Alexander also appears beefy for all its youthfulness – which in turn is underscored by the too-small flan for the die. The Heracles of Alexander also has a heavy lower jaw, with drooping corners at the mouth, a steep nose and a contracted eyebrow-forehead zone. Moreover, the short strands of hair are comparable, as are the wide-open eyes. The most important differences between the Heracles of the Alexander coinages and the Heracles of Tyre after 126/125 BC are the missing side curl on the temple and the overlaid lion scalp, which is replaced by a laurel wreath in the Tyrian coinages.

15Thus, even if the correspondence is not complete, a formal and stylistic dependence of the later coinages of Tyre on those of Alexander can be assumed. However, it is unclear whether this dependence can be traced back to a model in Tyre already from the Alexander period, or whether an older model was only used from 126/125 BC onwards when the silver coinage of the autonomous city was designed.

  • 43 A systematic study of this development is still pending, but it can be traced along the minting per (...)
  • 44 On Macedonian interventions in Greek sanctuaries and dedication of cultic images cf. Lichtenberger (...)
  • 45 A laurel wreath is depicted on the Melqart-tesserae from Tyros on a dated piece of the year 75/74 B (...)

16In favor of an interpretation close to the Alexander period is the fact that the majority of Alexander coinage dates from the late 4th century BC and that the later imitations of Alexander coinage, which run into the 2nd century BC, have just strongly smoothed and idealized the stylistic characteristics of the drooping lower jaw, steep nose, and contracted eyebrow-forehead zone.43 Accordingly, it can be assumed that the Tyrian Heracles type is influenced by a model that dates close to the time of Alexander’s coinage. Whether this influence goes back to Alexander, for example in the sense that he consecrated a prominent image in Tyre after the conquest44, or whether the city borrowed from the famous – numismatically transmitted – Alexander model remains unknown. The latter cannot be proven, since we cannot assume that the Alexander coins were still in currency in Tyre in the 2nd century BC. Therefore, it is obvious that it was not a direct taking over of the Alexander coin type. In this context, it needs to be emphasized that the choice of the laurel wreath for the Tyrian Heracles, as well as the prominent hairstyle design with drooping side curl, are both elements that cannot be related to Alexander’s Heracles and need to be regarded as local innovations.45

  • 46 Bonnet 1988, 33-40 and passim.

17The youthfulness of the Tyrian type of Heracles not only relates to Alexander’s type of Heracles, it also fits the character of the god. Heracles-Melqart is a youthful god who first dies and is then resurrected in the ritual of egersis.46 The youthfulness of Heracles of Tyre is therefore also theologically justified. One may even assume that this aspect is the actual reason why the image of the youthful Heracles gained such popularity and durability in Tyre, given that a reference to the Heracles of Alexander might have lost its meaningfulness following Alexander’s death and the end of the coinage of tetradrachms with Heracles.

  • 47 Lichtenberger 2021.
  • 48 Cf. on the coinage in Tyros before 126/125 BC, Sawaya 2012.
  • 49 Ehling 1998, 144-145.
  • 50 Ehling 1996, 88-89.

18It remains unclear how the image bridged the temporal gap of almost 200 years between the coinages of Alexander and those of Tyre. On the so-called quasi-municipal coinage from the time of Antiochos IV and later,47 Heracles is not depicted in Tyre, so that it remains uncertain what Heracles looked like in this period. However, the club as an emblem of the mint of Tyre already appears in issues following Alexander’s death and in coinage in Ptolemaic times, underlining the identification of Tyrian Melqart with the Greek Heracles in the early Hellenistic period (fig. 3)48. Hence, it remains likely that due to the strong stylistic similarities of the Heracles of Alexander and the Tyrian coin type, the image of Heracles-Melqart was in fact created prior to 126/125 BC, although current events may have facilitated this choice of image for the tetradrachms: Tyre was granted autonomy by Alexander II Zabinas, who practiced a pronounced Alexander imitatio.49 It was at Tyre were he defeated his antagonist Demetrius II and associated himself with Alexander the Great.50 Therefore, it may not be a coincidence that Tyre now resorted to a type of Heracles that was related to Alexander the Great, as a means to honor the beneficent Seleucid king, too.

Conclusions

19The famous Hellenistic coin type of Heracles in Tyre was obviously inspired by the Heracles type found on the coins of Alexander the Great. The youthful image and stylistic features of the type need to be related to these earlier silver coins of Alexander the Great. It is not clear whether the Tyrian coins directly go back to a prototype of Alexander the Great who had conquered Tyre and had a special relationship to the god, or – what seems more likely – whether this connection was reinvented/revived for Alexander II Zabinas who gave Tyre autonomy. In any case, the specific iconography intersects with the characteristics of the Tyrian Melqart who was a young, dying god. This underlines the notion that different visual traditions merged in this image, serving several purposes for viewers and their definitions of the god.

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Sawaya 2012: Z. Sawaya, “Tyr à l’époque hellénistique de la conquête macédonienne à l’autonomie (332-126/5 av. J.-C.) : histoire et monnaie”, in L’Histoire de Tyr au témoignage de l’archéologie. Actes du Séminaire International. Tyr 2011, BAAL Hors-Série VIII (2012), 269-284.

Stucky 1984: R. A. Stucky, Tribune d’Echmoun. Ein griechischer Reliefzyklus des 4. Jahrhunderts in Sidon, AntK 13. Beiheft, Basel 1984.

Syon 2015: D. Syon, Small Change in Hellenistic-Roman Galilee. The Evidence from Numismatic Site Finds as a Tool for Historical Reconstruction, Jerusalem 2015.

Will 1992: E. Will, “Alexandre à Tyr”, in Association Internationale pour la Sauvegarde de Tyr (ed.), La conscience européenne et le Liban : 2 juin 1987. Tyr et la formation des civilisations méditerranéennes : 6 novembre 1990, Paris 1992, 143-148.

Xella 2006: P. Xella, “Il ‘Dio Santo’ di Sarepta”, in G. del Olmo Lete et al. (eds.), Šapal tibnim mû illakū. Studies Presented to Joaquín Sanmartín on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, Aula Orientalis Supplementa 22, Barcelona 2006, 481-489.

Yon, Aliquot 2016: J.-B. Yon, J. Aliquot, Inscriptions grecques et latines du Musée national de Beyrouth, BAAL Hors-Série XII, Beyrouth 2016.

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Notes

1 Du Mesnil du Buisson 1963; Bonnet 1988.

2 Chuvin 1991, 224-254; Bannert 2016, 279-282.

3 Rey-Coquais 2006, 17-18 no. 1. Also, another Hellenistic inscription, which is very fragmented mentions Heracles and probably stems from the context of a gymnasium (Rey-Coquais 2006, 18 no. 2). Cf. also the late-Hellenistic bilingual inscription from the gymnasium of Arados mentioning Hermes and Heracles and identifying Heracles with Melqart (Bonnet 2015, 128-131).

4 Chéhab 1962, 16-17; Yon, Aliquot 2016, 151-152 no. 306.

5 Du Mesnil du Buisson 1963, 161. On “holy” as epiclesis of Semitic deities cf. Xella 2006, 484-485.

6 Chéhab 1962, 18-19 ; du Mesnil du Buisson 1963, 161 ; Rey-Coquais 2012, 32 ; Yon, Aliquot 2016, 154-155 no. 310.

7 Lichtenberger 2003, 57 and the nuanced discussion by Belayche 2020, 93-103.

8 Rey-Coquais 2012, 32.

9 Cf., for example, Chéhab 1962, 18-19 and the critical assessment by Aliquot 2006.

10 Rey-Coquais 1977, 1-3 no. 1; Bikai, Fulco, Marchand 1996, 2-4; Gatier 2016, 170.

11 Cf. Rey-Coquais 1977, 3; Aliquot 2009, 132.

12 Stucky 1984, 46; Bonnet 2015, 203, 217-218, 228-245.

13 Bikai, Fulco, Marchand 1996.

14 Rey-Coquais 2006, 19 no. 4.

15 Plut. Alex. XXIV 4-9; Curtius Rufus IV 3, 21–22. Cf. also Plut. Quaest. Rom. 61; on the siege: Arr. An. II 16-24. Cf. Will 1992, 145-146. On the dream revelation cf. Hajjar 1990, 2284-2285 and Bonnet 2015, 336-339, 361-363, 475-520.

16 Diod. XIII 108.

17 Rey-Coquais 2006, 18-19 no. 3.

18 Rey-Coquais 2006, 19-20 no. 5.

19 Rey-Coquais 2006, 23-24 no. 9.

20 Du Mesnil du Buisson 1963, 162; Rey-Coquais 2006, 21-23 no. 8.

21 Rey-Coquais 2006, 20-21 no. 7; Yon, Aliquot 2016, 162-163 no. 326.

22 Rey-Coquais 2006, 20 no. 6.

23 On the coinage of Tyros cf. Rouvier 1903; Rouvier 1904; BMC Phoenicia.

24 Cf. Syon 2015.

25 Rouvier 1903, 296-313 no. 1946-2121.

26 BMC Phoenicia CXXXVII; Hanson 1980, 24; Iossif 2011, esp. 213.

27 One reason for this adoption of a Ptolemaic image may be the dominance of Ptolemaic tetradrachms in the region even under Seleucid rule, as indicated by hoard finds and the later adoption of the lower weight standard for Phoenician silver coinage. Cf. Syon 2015, 55-57. On the Seleucid weight standard, see Iossif 2014, 67-68.

28 Iossif 2011, 213 interprets the palm branch, which also appears on the coins of Sidon, as a symbol of Phoenicia.

29 Cf. Lichtenberger 2003, 47 n. 214.

30 Cf. an altar in Tyros (Cumont 1927, 163-167) and reliefs in Kedesh (Fischer, Ovadiah, Roll 1984, 167-168).

31 BMC Phoenicia 229; Bonnet 1988, 85 n. 264; Bonnet 2015, 401.

32 Dunand, Duru 1962, 159 pl. XXXIII.2. The statue Dunand, Duru 1962, 159 pl. XXXV.4, which can be identified for sure as Heracles, is missing the head.

33 Cf. above, n. 3.

34 Pirenne-Delforge, Bonnet 2003.

35 Boardman et al. 1988; Boardman et al. 1990. On the youthful Heracles cf. Özen-Kleine 2008, 152-160.

36 Özen-Kleine 2008, 154.

37 Kansteiner 2000.

38 Most famously the Heracles Farnese of Lysippos, cf. Krull 1985.

39 Price 1991, esp. 31. The idea of recognizing a portrait of Alexander in the image of Heracles cannot be confirmed. Cf. Price 1991, 33. On Alexander and Heracles, see also Nicgorski 2005, 105-106; Rawlings 2005, 164-166. On the comparison with the coinage of Tyre, see Lombardi 2011, 408 n. 59.

40 The type of both the bearded and beardless Heracles is also attested in earlier Macedonian kings. Cf. Gaebler 1935, 155 no. 12 (bearded) (Perdikkas II); 156 no. 8 (bearded). 9-10 (beardless) (Archelaos I); 159 no. 1 (bearded). 2–3 (beardless) (Amyntas III); 161-162 no. 1–5 (beardless) (Perdikkas III); 163-164 no. 9–16 (beardless); 166 no. 26; 168 no. 37-41 (Philipp II).

41 Duyrat 2016, 331.

42 Duyrat 2016, 349-366.

43 A systematic study of this development is still pending, but it can be traced along the minting periods according to Price 1991. See also Duyrat 2016, 371 figs. 7.1-7.3.

44 On Macedonian interventions in Greek sanctuaries and dedication of cultic images cf. Lichtenberger 2013.

45 A laurel wreath is depicted on the Melqart-tesserae from Tyros on a dated piece of the year 75/74 BC (Abou Diwan, Sawaya 2011, 267 no. 9). However, other wreaths are also found on the tesserae, so that no exclusive affiliation may be assumed here.

46 Bonnet 1988, 33-40 and passim.

47 Lichtenberger 2021.

48 Cf. on the coinage in Tyros before 126/125 BC, Sawaya 2012.

49 Ehling 1998, 144-145.

50 Ehling 1996, 88-89.

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Table des illustrations

Titre Fig. 1: Tetradrachm of Tyre, 90/89 BC (year 37), 14.35 gr; 30 mm. Obv.: Head of Heracles-Melqart to r.; Rev.: Eagle, standing on prow
Crédits Gorny & Mosch Auction 236, 7 March 2016, lot 293
URL http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/docannexe/image/5419/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 267k
Titre Fig. 2: Shekel of Tyre, 4th century BC, 8.64 gr; 20 mm. Obv.: Bearded rider with bow on hippocamp to r.; Rev.: Owl with crook and flail
Crédits Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 375, 1 June 2016, lot 16
URL http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/docannexe/image/5419/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 196k
Titre Fig. 3: Posthumous tetradrachm of Ptolemy I, Tyre mint, 305/283 BC, 13,92 gr; 26 mm. Obv.: Diademed head of Ptolemy I to r.; Rev.: Eagle standing od thunderbolt, in field l. club
Crédits Hirsch, Auction 348, 8 May 2019, lot 474
URL http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/docannexe/image/5419/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 329k
Titre Fig. 4: Limestone head of bearded male, height 12 cm (Dunand, Duru 1962, pl. XXXIII.2). From Umm el-Amed (Lebanon)
URL http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/docannexe/image/5419/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 91k
Titre Fig. 5: Heracles Lansdowne, copy of a work by Skopas, marble cast in the Archaeological Museum of Münster University.
URL http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/docannexe/image/5419/img-5.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 82k
Titre Fig. 6: Heracles Farnese, copy of a work by Lysippos, National Archaeological Museum Naples
Crédits © Wikicommons, Marie-Lan Nguyen
URL http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/docannexe/image/5419/img-6.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 209k
Titre Fig. 7: Posthumous tetradrachm of Alexander the Great, Tyre mint, 322/321 BC, 17.16 gr; 26.5 mm. Obv.: Head of Heracles with lion skin to r.; Rev.: Zeus with eagle seated to l
Crédits Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 428, 5 September 2018, lot 91
URL http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/docannexe/image/5419/img-7.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 182k
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Référence électronique

Achim Lichtenberger, « The Youthful Heracles-Melqart in Tyre. Choosing a Visual Language for a Phoenician God in the Hellenistic Period  »Mythos [En ligne], 16 | 2022, mis en ligne le 15 décembre 2022, consulté le 04 décembre 2023. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/mythos/5419 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/mythos.5419

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Auteur

Achim Lichtenberger

Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Institut für Klassische Archäologie und Christliche Archäologie. Domplatz 20 – 22. D- 48143 Münster (Germany). lichtenb(at)uni-muenster.de

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