AncientCoinArt.com Presents

Bizya AE18 Moushmov 3814 of Philip II

Philip II AE 18mm of Bizya, Thrace. M IOVLI FILIPPOC KAIC, laureate, draped bust right / BIZVENWN, Silenus standing right, pouring wine from wine bag into krater (or Hercules carrying the Erymanthian Boar on his shoulders?)

Lot No.3831. Fine.

$ 175.

The Erymanthean Boar

For the fourth labor, Eurystheus ordered Hercules to bring him the Erymanthian boar alive. Now, a boar is a huge, wild pig with a bad temper, and tusks growing out of its mouth.

This one was called the Erymanthian boar, because it lived on a mountain called Erymanthus. Every day the boar would come crashing down from his lair on the mountain, attacking men and animals all over the countryside, gouging them with its tusks, and destroying everything in its path.

On his way to hunt the boar, Hercules stopped to visit his friend Pholus, who was a centaur and lived in a cave near Mount Erymanthus. Everyone knows that centaur is a human from his head to his waist, and a horse for the rest of his body and his legs. Hercules was hungry and thirsty, so the kindly centaur cooked Hercules some meat in the fireplace, while he himself ate his meat raw.

When Hercules asked for wine, Pholus said that he was afraid to open the wine jar, because it belonged to all the centaurs in common. But Hercules said not to worry, and opened it himself. Soon afterwards, the rest of the centaurs smelled the wine and came to Pholus's cave. They were angry that someone was drinking all of their wine. The first two who dared to enter were armed with rocks and fir trees. Hercules grabbed burning sticks from the fireplace and threw them at the centaurs, then went after them with his club.

He shot arrows at the rest of them and chased after them for about twenty miles. The rest of the centaurs fled in different directions. One of the centaurs, Chiron, received a wound that no amount of medicine would heal...but what happened to Chiron is another story.

Philip II was the son of Philip the Arab and Otacilia Severa. He was made Caesar when his father assumed the throne in 244 AD, and Augustus in 247 AD, but he soon shared his father's fate when they were killed by Trajan Decius' rebel forces at Verona in 249 AD.