Gods and goddesses on coins of Cilicia Trachea

 

The following table shows which deities appear on coins minted in Cilicia Trachea during the pre-Hellenistic period. It does not distinguish between depictions on the obverse and reverse. The last row includes coins without an explicit depiction of a deity. Such coins depict mythical creatures such as Pegasus, a Gorgon, and a sphinx, or various secular motifs.

Anemourion Aphrodisias Holmoi Kelenderis Nagidos
Aphrodite
(sometimes with Eros)
staters,
obols
staters, third staters, obols, hemiobols, tetartemorions, bronze coins
Apollo staters staters, obols, hemiobols, bronze coins
Athena
(sometimes bearing Nike)
staters staters, obols, hemiobols, bronze coins obols, hemiobols
Baal obols, bronze coins
Dionysos staters, third staters, obols, hemiobols, bronze coins
Herakles staters
Hermes obols
Pan obols, bronze coins
Tyche obols
uncertain male deity obols
no explicit deity staters, third staters, obols staters, third staters, obols, hemiobols, bronze coins obols

The coinages of Anemourion and Aphrodisias provide only incomplete and uncertain evidence for the deities worshipped there. Only two staters from Anemourion are known, both struck from the same dies. As for Aphrodisias, no coin can be attributed to this mint with certainty.

The earliest issues of Holmoi, dating to the 5th century BC (Group 1), do not depict any deities or divine attributes; their only mythological motif is Pegasus, which appears on the obols. Coins from the 4th century BC (Group 2), however, depict Apollo, Athena, and a bearded god, probably Zeus, Poseidon, or Kronos.

Kelenderis is the only city whose staters never depict a deity. Athena appears only on some obols and hemiobols. The gorgoneion1 also appears on Kelenderis bronze coins and on some obols and hemiobols. Pegasus is the only other mythological creature depicted. Aelius Herodianus, who records the Samian origin of Kelenderis, also mentions a sacred precinct of Hera near the city.2 This is consistent with the importance of Hera’s cult on Samos. The coins, however, depict neither Hera nor any of her attributes. Athena’s cult appears to have been more prominent in Kelenderis when these coins were minted, in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

Coins of Nagidos feature the widest range of deities: Aphrodite, Baal, Dionysos, Pan, and Tyche. The principal deities represented are Aphrodite and Dionysos, both of whom appear on most stater issues and on lower denominations. On some staters, Aphrodite is accompanied by Eros.

 

1 The gorgoneion was a protective symbol depicting a Gorgon’s head. It was one of Athena’s oldest attributes and was also associated with Zeus.

2 Aelius Herodianus, Herodiani Technici Reliquiae, Vol. 2, 925.6. For the foundation of Kelenderis by Samian colonists, see Cilicia Trachea in the Classical Period / Mints in the Classical Period / Kelenderis.

 

2 April 2022 – 5 September 2026