Geta Æ of Philippopolis, Thrace Roman Provincial 209-211 AD Copper Coin Aged with Antique Green Patina Museum Reproduction CRP0009

The Thracian singer Orpheus is said to be the son of the muse Kalliope and the Thracian king Oiagros or the god Apollo whose fame as kitharoedos he soon outflanked. His Thracian origin was questioned until recently. But already the Greeks saw him as Thracian, in the same way like the muses wich came from the region around the mount Olympos too. Orpheus is entwined in so much myths that the mythographs assumed several different Orpheus’. He is known from the 6th and 5th century from fragments of Simonides and from a text in the ‘Alkestis’ by Euripides that was first played 438 BC.
His art as singer was praised especially in the Orphic scripts. In the ‘Argonautika’ of Apollonius Rhodios he was stylized to the greatest heroe and thereby exceeding even Theseus. During the journey of the Argos he was the keleustes, giving the tact to the oarsmen, and calming the waves of the sea. His song to the lyre was so moving, that stones, rocks, even mountains came to him to listen, that the wild animals gathered tamed around hím, that the trees walked to him (Ovid Lib. X), that the rivers stopped flowing and that the snow on the mountains was melting. In the underworld the furies were moved to tears for the first and last time.
When he failed in his attempt to free his beloved Eurydike from the Hades he abdicated the love to women, decided to never get married and introduced the pederasty to Thrace. Half a year he was sitting in a cave of the river Strymon, mourning. But the Mainades, the companions of Dionysos, were put into rage about him, and jumped on him. Because they feared the power of his art they first killed his ‘living theater’, the birds, the snakes, the droves of game, the bulls and then they teared him apart, the Holy, in a bacchanal of violence. His head nailed on his lyre they throw into the Strymon where he is said to have sung furthermore. The waves carried it to the beach of Lesbos which then became the island of poetry. His lyre was put as constellation to the sky. After his death the birds were mourning, the game, the rocks, the wood. The trees discarded their leafs, the rivers swelled from self dropped tears. But the soul of Orpheus searched the underworld for Eurydike, found her and finally they promenaded in combined steps like only one shadow. Only in death there is eternal love!
The scene in which Orpheus tamed the wild animals by his music was well known in the Roman imperial time. The idea of civilizing barbaric traits through arts and poetry was a persistent cultural value throughout Roman times. It is a symbol of the victory of the civilization over barbarianism.
DESIGN:
Obverse side
Laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right
Legend:
AYT · K · Π · CE-Π · ΓETAC · AY

Reverse side
Orpheus seated right on rocks, wearing Phrygian cap and playing his lyre to the animals arranged boar / wolf and stork / shorter-necked wading bird and panther on left, capricorn / lion / bull on right
Legend:
ΦIΛIΠΠOΠO / ΛEITΩN

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