Asia Minor, Caria, Rhodes Island, AR Drachma

Asia Minor, Caria, Rhodes Island, AR Drachma (304-166 BC) 

Av. head of Helios in three-quarter profile
Rs. Rose, mordant. Caduceus

Historical

Helios on the coins of Rhodes.

According to mythology, Helios, because he was late in distributing the earth, received the island of Rhodes, which had just emerged from the sea.

Whether the legendary founding of the ancient Rhodian cities of Kamiros, Ialysos and Lindos can be traced back to him or to his grandsons, however, is a matter of disagreement even in ancient mythology.

Be that as it may, the veneration that Helios received on Rhodes was enormous and extended into mythical prehistory.

Helios only appears numismatically after the new capital Rhodes was founded at the end of the 5th century BC. Likewise, the blossoming rose only became the dominant image motif on the reverse of the coins with the invention of this "new" type of coin. The coins of these poleis were previously in the tradition of the Asia Minor coinage of the archaic period and had animals, plants, recessed squares and rectangles. Consequently, the idealised portraits of the gods were not included in the image programme of ancient Greek die-cutting art until later.

Why the rose in connection with Helios?

The rose was sacred to the sun god. Even in antiquity, its fragrance and oils were considered beguiling and sensual. It is a plant that was cultivated early on and was known throughout the Mediterranean as an ornamental plant in gardens. The rose is also said to have given Rhodes its name, and not only Helios is associated with it, but also Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

As for the portrait of Helios that adorns the obverse of the two coins shown above, in contrast to the coin image of the blossoming rose, it can only be regarded as an independent Rhodian image motif to a limited extent. For although there was no coin with the head of Helios in all of Greece from which the Rhodian Helios could have been borrowed, the idea of depicting the head of the god in a frontal or three-quarter view was of Syracusan origin. 

Strictly speaking, the head of Helios from Rhodes goes back to the Arethusa of the Syracusan die-cutter Kimon. The only unique feature of the Rhodian representation of the gods is therefore the transformation of a female coin portrait into a male one, which, as can be seen, the Rhodian die cutters succeeded in doing excellently.

Text according: M.K. Sonntag:

https://www.muenzen-online.com/post/helios-auf-den-m%C3%BCnzen-von-rhodos

Revision B.F. / Emporium Hamburg