The man-faced bull of Neapolis and the siren Parthenope
How an iconic design has survived in more modern numismatics and in today's city of Naples.
Write-Up
Everyone who has spent some time looking at ancient coins has probably encountered the man-faced bull in one of its forms:
It represents the river-god Achelous (Ancient Greek: Ἀχελώϊος, and later Ἀχελῷος, Akhelôios), and it became the symbol of the coinage of Neapolis, starting from the very first coins ever issued, until the famous didrachm:
How do we know it doesn’t represent the river ‘Sepeithos’, which once crossed the city of Neapolis? Because an extremely rare obol from Neapolis actually shows Sepeithos on the obverse, and it’s quite different looking, as he is depicted as a young man with horns. On the reverse a winged figure, possibly a river nymph, is sitting on a hydria, a water carrying vessel:
Furthermore, the connection with this city in particular emerges through the myths. Achelous was the father of three Sirens: Parthenope, Ligeia and Leucosia. After failing to entice Odysseus with her singing, Parthenope cast herself into the sea and drowned, with her body washing ashore at Naples on the island of Megaride, where Castel dell’Ovo is now located.
What many people don’t know is that Parthenope and the bull have survived in both numismatics and in today’s city iconography.
Here an example of a rare coin minted by Augustus in 19 BC, as a tribute to the city. In the same year he minted another series as a tribute to the city of Velia. That year Augustus went to Athens for the second time, after his first visit of 22-21 BC, in order to strengthen its relationships with the city, so the appearance of these types in that year is not a coincidence, but a hommage to the Greek heritage of the cities of southern Italy:
As we can see, the reverse perfectly matches the one from Neapolis, with Achelous being crowned by Nike.
Similar tributes to the coinage of Neapolis can be observed in medals from the Bourbon family, from Napoleon, and most notably, from Caroline Bonaparte / Murat, where she is depicted as Parthenope:
The Carolina Bonaparte medal and the Neapolis drachm and didrachm are from my personal collection, and I have added a digitally colored version to enhance their features:
For more info on these coins:
The symbols of Parthenope in her various forms are still alive in Naples, like in the Fountain of the Spinacorona, in the door of the 'Palazzo Matteotti' where the Province of Naples is located, in the head of an ancient statue of Parthenope, in fountains, and there have been reenactments of the 'Lampadodromie napoletane' (Neapolitan Torch Races) held in honour of Parthenope. (News article on the subject).
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I will conclude this short article with one final image. Many of you probably know the Royal Theater of Saint Charles in Naples, it is the oldest continuously active venue for opera in the world, having opened in 1737, decades before either Milan's La Scala or Venice's La Fenice. The statue on top of the façade hides an image of Achelous, the man-faced bull:
A silent, eternal guardian of the city after 2500 years.