Spare the lizard, insidious boy...

[kirispupis]

It's not often that one has the opportunity to pick up a coin whose obverse has an epigram covering it, but such is the case with a recent acquisition depicting Praxiteles' Apollo Sauroktonos.

Antoninus Pius
Moesia Inferior, Nicopolis ad Istrum
138-161 CE
Æ 21mm 4.94 gm, 7h
Obv: ΑVΤ ΑΙ ΑΔΡΙΑ ΑΝΤΩΝΕΙΝΟС, Bare head right
Rev: ΝΕΙΚΟΠΟΛITΩΝ, Apollo Sauroktonos standing right, left hand on tree stump and holding arrow in right hand, preparing to stab lizard on tree to right
Not in RPC: RPC 4, 4328 (temporary) (var.- reverse legend); AMNG I__; SNG Copenhagen__; Varbanov I (E), 2116, “Unpublished” (Private collection); Rarity 7. HrHJ (2018) 8.6.7.3
Ex Akropolis Coins(PeteB)

 

This specific sculpture was mentioned by Pliny in Natural History 34.19.11:

Praxiteles also made a youthful Apollo called in Greek the Lizard-Slayer because he is waiting with an arrow for a lizard creeping towards him.

He was followed by the poet Martial:

Corinthian Lizard Slayer. Spare the lizard, insidious boy, as she creeps toward you; she wants to die by your fingers.

The crazy thing, though, is both got it wrong! In a landmark paper by the late Renate Preisshofen, it's pointed out that Apollo had no ill will against this little lizard.

Her paper solves a mystery I'd been wondering for some time. Imagine:

In this corner, standing at awe-inspiring height, with the strength of a hundred warriors running through his veins, we have the slayer of Python, who took down Atlas with an uppercut, who tamed the hound Cerberus in twelve seconds, the undefeated sun-god Apollo!

And in the other corner, measuring eight inches from head to tail, the conqueror of flies, the gnarler of gnats, a little lizard!

Besides the tremendous mismatch, the pose of Apollo also doesn't resemble someone who's about to squash a lizard. Instead, as Preisshofen pointed out, the lizard is crawling upwards...towards the sun. Apollo, as the sun-god, isn't harming the lizard. He's healing him. As the lizard molts he comes out blind, but the warmth of the sun brings him back and its brightness lets him see again.

A very similar analogy (without Apollo), can be seen at St. Peters in the Vatican and is shown in this paper by Lavin.

As far as I know, only Nicopolis ad Istrum minted a coin depicting the sculpture Apollo Sauroktonos. The city, founded by Trajan, received significant funds from him to become a model city and I suspect someone there went to www.exemplar-sculpturarum-celebrium.spqr and just put everything in his cart.

Today, roughly forty ancient copies of Apollo Sauroktonos remain. The Cleveland Museum of Art claims to have an original, though that is fiercely debated. Just visit that museum and at any moment you may see researchers bringing up their siege engines.

When I started my small collection of ancient sculptures, this coin was at the top of the list. It's not a rare type, but I wanted a copy where the lizard is clear. In mine, the little legs and head veered towards Apollo are evident. It was previously in the collection of another member here.

This is now a prized piece in my collection. I originally had the idea to create a display of my ancient sculpture coins with little magnifying glasses on the reverses. People could then walk through my "sculpture gallery." I proposed this idea to my wife and it was not approved.

[Roman Collector]

I have only one coin with this reverse motif. 

Macrinus, 217-218 CE.
Roman provincial Æ pentassarion, 12.64 g, 27 mm, 1 h.
Moesia Inferior, Nicopolis, Legate Marcus Claudius Agrippa, 218 CE.
Obv: ΑV Κ ΟΠΠΕΛ CΕVΗ ΜΑΚΡΙΝΟC, laureate head, right.
Rev: VΠ ΑΓΡΙΠΠΑ ΝΙΚΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ ΠΡΟC ΙCΤΡΩ, Nude Apollo with crossed legs standing right, his right arm drawn back, his left on a tree trunk, from which a lizard (?) leaps across to him.[5]
Refs: AMNG I 1687; Moushmov 1210; Hristova and Jekov 8.23.7.2; Varbanov 3348; Mionnet Suppl. 2, p. 148, 541.

[Sulla80]

Great post @kirispupis - I don't know what the relationship is between this goose and lizard - I think they may just coexist in the environs of Eion.

[CPK]

Cool coin @kirispupis! And another type I don't remember seeing before.

[Alegandron]

Great coin & write up @kirispupis!

I have a couple lizards …

Sicily Kamarina AE 15mm 3.4g 420-405 BCE Athena Owl Lizard 3 dots Sear Gk 1063



SICILY Kamarina Æ Onkia 13mm 1.5g 420-405 BC-OLDEST Gorgon tongue - KAMA owl r lizard in claw pellet in ex SNG Münch 411

Edited December 20, 2024 by Alegandron