Amazing Gold Coin Older Than Christ Found In Israel, Is There A Dragon On The Coin?

Originally posted by poet1b
reply to post by Byrd

 

Good, find, so there are other versions of this coin out there. However, your first link looks even more like a dragon. See the puff of fire or smoke coming out of its mouth.

We can agree to disagree, then. As I said, there are statues and coins and other things with these images on them... including a few with the images of dragons being killed or conquered... which are of Greek origin.

Based on my familiarity with the legends, lore, and art of Greece (and of dragons, which I really like) I do not see a dragon. I see the standard stylized cornucopia and know of no source that supports "they cut a dragon's head off and fruit and wealth poured out of its neck" concept that would be needed for that image to be a dragon.

Your link to the fairy tale site is to a site that has either been mistranslating information or is twisting it to suit the artist's art. It was serpents (snakes) that were considered wise and oracular in Greece... and a lot of the other information on that page is either misremembered, repeated from tales told by someone else, or simply the artist's interpretation.

You are free to call it what you like. However, I prefer to know what things are so I can understand them and understand how they fit in the wonderful fabric of history of the world. Knowing about coinages and minting and how the rulers of Egypt and the Mediterranean area presented images of themselves as gods of prosperity, I see the coin as a commemorative issued to impress the other rulers of the area (which is how it ended up where it did) and given in some gift exchange between rulers. It's part of the very interesting political landscape of the Ptolemaic empire and that time... I suspect it's part of a gift to a client king (who would be asking for gifts in order to keep on being their ally) where they show both in symbol and in gift richness how beneficial it is to continue being their friend.

But... as I said, you're welcome to believe what you like. It won't give you the richness of understanding for the complexity of history and won't give you any tools for uncovering the web of connections. As for myself, I think this suggests looking into the client-king relationships at the time of the Ptolemys and finding out if the coin might have been given as a bribe or as a payment for services.