BOARS, HOGS, SOWS AND PIGLETS ON ANCIENT COINS

Intelligent, adaptable and omnivorous, pigs have long been companions to humans. We know from cave paintings that Palaeolithic hunters pursued wild boars. The earliest evidence for the domestication of pigs dates from about 8000 BCE (Larson). Even though it is surrounded by many cultural and religious taboos, it’s no surprise that such a succulent and versatile animal features prominently on ancient coinage.

The Greeks: When Pigs Flew
The Greek imagination added wings to all sorts of unlikely creatures, including horses (Pegasus), sphinxes, even girls (Nike, goddess of Victory).

And at least six Greek towns used the image of a winged boar on their coins: Klazomenai, Samos, Kyzikos, Ialysos, Kisthene and Mytilene. This winged boar is usually identified as Chrysaor, brother of Pegasus. On coins we only see the front half of the animal (the technical numismatic term is “protome” – which roughly translates as “first cut.”) The rest of Chrysaor shows up painted on the shield of Geryon, who fights Herakles on a famous cup painted by the artist Euphronios (ca. 500 BCE).

Non-magical, wingless pigs also appear on Greek coins, notably from the small town of Abakainon (or Abacaenum) on the northern coast of Sicily, where oak forests in the nearby mountains provided pasturage to great herds of pigs.

The Calydonian Boar One of the most celebrated legendary swine of antiquity was the Calydonian boar, an enormous beast sent by the goddess Artemis to ravage the land of Aetolia because the king had failed to pay her proper homage. The warrior prince Meleager gathered a team of heroes to hunt the terrible porker. The story was a popular theme in classical art, and we see the great shaggy boar, pierced by an arrow and harried by a slender hound on a denarius of 64 BCE issued by Hosidius Geta.

On Imperial coinage, the sow and piglets often appear, symbolizing prosperity to pork-loving Romans; for example, on a denarius of the emperor Vespasian issued in 77 CE.

The boar was a common design on the smallest regular denomination, the copper quadrans–notably those struck by the emperor Trajan (ruled 98-117 CE). The obverse of Trajan’s quadrans bears the bust of Hercules, so the reverse is surely the Erymanthian boar captured as the fourth labor of Hercules.

According to the myth, a giant, savage boar lived on Mount Erymanthos (at 2224 m, or 7297 feet, the fourth-tallest peak in the Peloponnese). As punishment for killing his family in a fit of madness, Hercules was obliged to perform a series of 12 impossible tasks, or “Labors” for King Eurystheus of Argos. Capturing the Erymanthian boar was the fourth task. Hercules chased the animal into deep snow on the mountain and subdued it with his superhuman strength. When he carried the beast back to Argos, the king was so terrified of it that he hid inside a huge storage jar.

The scene is represented on a rare bronze drachm of Alexandria struck about 146 CE under the emperor Antoninus Pius. Roman Egypt had its own coinage, with Greek inscriptions and themes, and the large bronzes provided ample space for graphic storytelling.

To read the complete article, see:
This Little Piggy Went to Market: Boars, Hogs, Sows and Piglets on Ancient Coins (www.coinweek.com/ancient-coins/little-piggy-went-market-boars-hogs-sows-piglets-ancient-coins/)

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