Hermodike II

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Hermodike II has been attributed with inventing coinage by Aristotle. [1] Other historians have translated the name as Hermodice, Damodice or Demodike as translated by Julius Pollux. [2] [3]

Hermodike II was the daughter of a dynastic Agamemnon of Cyme and married to the third dynastic King Midas, possibly a literary reference to Alyattes of Lydia, in the 6th century BC. [4] She was named after Hermodike I who has been attributed with inventing the Greek written script.

Numismatic history

Coinage revolutionised trade and commerce, creating market economics, see History of coins.

A passage in Pollux speaks about those who invented the process of coining money mentioning Pheidon and Demodike from Cyme, wife of the Phrygian king, Midas, and daughter of King Agamemnon of Cyme. [5]

Another example of local pride is the dispute about coinage, whether the 1st one to strike it was Pheidon of Argos, or Demodike of Kyme (who was wife of Midas the Phrygian and daughter of King Agammemnon of Kyme), or Erichthonios and Lycos of Athens, or the Lydians (as Xenophanes says) or the Naxians (as Anglosthenes thought)

— Julius Pollux, Onamastikon IX.83 [6]
Early 6th-century BC Lydian electrum coin (one-third stater denomination) BMC 06.jpg
Early 6th-century BC Lydian electrum coin (one-third stater denomination)

The 8th-century BC King Midas likely Gyges of Lydia pre-dates coinage. Coins were not invented until 610 BC by King Alyattes (610–560 BC), Gyges' great grandson. [7] The Lydian Lion coin directly preceded ancient Greek coinage, through which Rome begot all Western coinage. Yet, although the Lydian Lion was minted by Alyattes for use as a "nobleman's tax-token", [8] "it took some time before ancient coins were used for everyday commerce and trade. Even the smallest-denomination electrum coins, perhaps worth about a day's subsistence, would have been too valuable for buying a loaf of bread." [9] The Greeks of Cyme changed the Lydian "tax-token" into a means of transaction for the common man and woman. Stamped coins avoided weighing silver for small transactions because the symbol on the hemiobol was enough to verify its value.

Two late Greek sources record that King Midas of Phrygia married a Greek princess. Aristotle [1] calls her Hermodike and says she "cut/struck the earliest coinage of Kyme." Pollux [2] names her Demodike, the daughter of King Agamemnon of Kyme, and he notes that she was but one among several others who were alleged to have been the first to strike coins. Both sources cite Kyme in Aeolis, on the west coast of Asia minor, as the princess's home and Pollux specifically identifies her father as being king there. Given the late date (albeit derived from earlier sources) of the accounts, the fact coinage is mentioned, and that there were presumably 7th century, as well as 6th-century Phrygian kings named Midas, [10] it remains uncertain that the Midas-Mita of the 8th century BC, and not a later one. [11]

However, academics state that Aristotle and Pollux, though ancient commentators, were not historians and so their unsubstantiated opinions may be misleading. Given the technological and chronological link to minting, Hermodike II may have been married to Alyattes of Lydia, who had more than one wife, [12] and who amassed great wealth, like Midas, by sourcing the electrum for his coins from Midas’ fabled river Pactolus.

Ionia, Uncertain city (possibly Kyme, Aeolis) 600-550 BCE, Hemiobol. Horse head, rough incuse Horse head, rough incuse.jpg
Ionia, Uncertain city (possibly Kyme, Aeolis) 600–550 BCE, Hemiobol. Horse head, rough incuse

Hermodike II is attributed to the global spread of coinage. The coins from Cyme, when first circulated around 600–550 BCE, utilised the symbol of the horse. The symbol of the Trojan Horse tied the dynasty of Agamemnon with the glory of the original Agamemnon through the Greek victory over Troy.

In contrast to works of art and inscriptions, Greek and Roman coins are wholly official in the information they impart, for the simple reason (not sufficiently often realized) that they were almost always produced under state prerogative. They therefore embodied the authority of the state, clear and unmistakable. [13]

it is more likely, that what the Greeks called invention, was rather the introduction of the knowledge of them [coins] from countries more advanced in civilization. [14]

Alyattes created coinage - to use a token currency, where the value is guaranteed by the state and not by the value of the metal used in the coins [15] - and the role of Hermodike II was to communicate that technology and philosophy into Greek society as per D. Macpherson's observation,

From Aeolic Cyme a king Agamemnon married his daughter Hermodice to a Midas ruler of Phrygia. We do not know whether this was the eighth-century Midas or (if it was true that Hermodice struck the first coinage of Cyme) a later Midas ruling under Lydian or Persian authority; but some sort of Phrygia-Aeolia-Euboea link from an early period seems almost certain. [16]

Hermodike II was the royal link between Lydia and Aeolia – the conduit of knowledge and the person who influenced the Greeks into adopting the invention of coins. Ancient Greek market economics subsequently influenced the rest of the western world.

Related Research Articles

Alyattes Biography of Alyattes, king of Lydia to 560 BC

Alyattes, sometimes described as Alyattes I, was the fourth king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Sadyattes, grandson of Ardys, and great-grandson of Gyges. He died after a reign of 57 years and was succeeded by his son Croesus.

Coin Small, flat and usually round piece of material used as money

A coin is a small, flat, round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government. Coins often have images, numerals, or text on them. Obverse and its opposite, reverse, refer to the two flat faces of coins and medals. In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it often depicts the head of a prominent person, and the reverse tails.

Lydia Iron Age kingdom and then province in western Anatolia

Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern western Turkish provinces of Uşak, Manisa and inland Izmir. The ethnic group inhabiting this kingdom are known as the Lydians, and their language, known as Lydian, was a member of the Anatolian branch of the Indo-European language family. The capital of Lydia was Sardis.

Midas Mythological Greek king able to turn what he touches to gold

Midas is the name of one of at least three members of the royal house of Phrygia.

Electrum Alloy of gold and silver

Electrum is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, with trace amounts of copper and other metals. Its color ranges from pale to bright yellow, depending on the proportions of gold and silver. It has been produced artificially, and is also known as "green gold".

Croesus Lydian King

Croesus was the king of Lydia, who reigned from 585 BC until his defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 547 or 546 BC.

Gyges of Lydia King of Lydia (fl. 7th century BC)

Gyges was the founder of the Mermnad dynasty of Lydian kings and the first known king of the Lydian kingdom to have attempted to transform it into a powerful empire.

Gordias was the name of at least two members of the royal house of Phrygia.

Sadyattes was the third king of the Mermnad dynasty in Lydia, the son of Ardys and the grandson of Gyges of Lydia.

History of coins

The history of coins stretches back to the first millennium BC/BCE. Notable examples of coins include the Lydian Lion coins, Persian daric and siglos, Tong Bei, the dirham and gold dinar.

Phrygians Ancient Indo-European speaking people

The Phrygians were an ancient Indo-European speaking people, who inhabited central-western Anatolia in antiquity. They were related to the Greeks.

Stater Ancient coin in Greece

The stater was an ancient coin used in various regions of Greece. The term is also used for similar coins, imitating Greek staters, minted elsewhere in ancient Europe.

Tripolis on the Meander Ancient Greek city in Turkey

Tripolis on the Meander – also Neapolis, Apollonia, and Antoniopolis – was an ancient city on the borders of Phrygia, Caria and Lydia, on the northern bank of the upper course of the Maeander, and on the road leading from Sardes by Philadelphia to Laodicea ad Lycum. It was situated 20 km to the northwest of Hierapolis.

Cyme (Aeolis) Ancient Greek city

Cyme or Cumae was an Aeolian city in Aeolis close to the kingdom of Lydia.

Phrygia Ancient kingdom in Anatolia

In classical antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. After its conquest, it became a region of the great empires of the time.

Gordion Capital city of ancient Phrygia

Gordion was the capital city of ancient Phrygia. It was located at the site of modern Yassıhüyük, about 70–80 km (43–50 mi) southwest of Ankara, in the immediate vicinity of Polatlı district. Gordion's location at the confluence of the Sakarya and Porsuk rivers gave it a strategic location with control over fertile land. Gordion lies where the ancient road between Lydia and Assyria/Babylonia crossed the Sangarius river. Occupation at the site is attested from the Early Bronze Age continuously until the 4th century CE and again in the 13th and 14th centuries CE. The Citadel Mound at Gordion is approximately 13.5 hectares in size, and at its height habitation extended beyond this in an area approximately 100 hectares in size. Gordion is the type site of Phrygian civilization, and its well-preserved destruction level of c. 800 BCE is a chronological linchpin in the region. The long tradition of tumuli at the site is an important record of elite monumentality and burial practice during the Iron Age.

Prehistory of Anatolia Prehistorical period in Western Asia

The prehistory of Anatolia stretches from the Paleolithic era through to the appearance of classical civilisation in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. It is generally regarded as being divided into three ages reflecting the dominant materials used for the making of domestic implements and weapons: Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. The term Copper Age (Chalcolithic) is used to denote the period straddling the stone and Bronze Ages.

Hermodike I has been attributed with inventing the Greek written script, i.e. the transfer of earlier technical knowledge from Phrygia into ancient Greek society through Aeolis. She is referred to by Aristotle. The same name was given as Demodike by Pollux. Academics state that Aristotle and Pollux, though ancient commentators, were not historians and so their unsubstantiated opinions may be misleading. Other historians have given the name as Hermodice or Damodice.

Croeseid Lydian coin

The Croeseid, anciently Kroiseioi stateres, was a type of coin, either in gold or silver, which was minted in Sardis by the king of Lydia Croesus from around 550 BC. Croesus is credited with issuing the first true gold coins with a standardised purity for general circulation, and the world's first bimetallic monetary system.

References

  1. 1 2 Aristotle, fr.611,37 ed. V.Rose
  2. 1 2 Pollux, Onamastikon IX.83
  3. ↑ Muscarella, Oscar White (15 June 2013). Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East: Sites, Cultures, and Proveniences. ISBN   978-9004236691.
  4. ↑ The History of Antiquity, Volumes I, V. and VI of VI, Max Duncker, Library of Alexandria
  5. ↑ Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology, Martin Nilsson, 1983 Univ of California Press, p. 48.
  6. ↑ Muscarella, Oscar White (15 June 2013). Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East: Sites, Cultures, and Proveniences. ISBN   978-9004236691.
  7. ↑ "World's Oldest Coin - First Coins". oldestcoins.reidgold.com.
  8. ↑ "World's Oldest Coin - First Coins". rg.ancients.info.
  9. ↑ "Hoards, Small Change, and the Origin of Coinage," Journal of the Hellenistic Studies 84 (1964), p. 89
  10. ↑ Herodotus I.35; Koerte 1904: 25f
  11. ↑ Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East: Sites, Cultures, and Proveniences, Oscar White Muscarella, BRILL, 2013, p. 705
  12. ↑ Herodotus, The Histories, (Penguin Books, Suffolk, England, 1983), I., p. 79
  13. ↑ Sutherland, Carol Humphrey Vivian (1940). "The Historical Evidence of Greek and Roman Coins". Greece & Rome. 9 (26): 65–80. doi:10.1017/S0017383500006756. JSTOR   641208. S2CID   163121130.
  14. ↑ Annals of Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, and Navigation, with Brief Notices of the Arts and Sciences Connected with Them. Containing the Commercial Transactions of the British Empire and Other Countries ... with a Large Appendix ... with a General Chronological Index ... 1805 ... by David Macpherson. In Four Volumes. Vol. 1.(–4.), Volume 1, p. 16
  15. ↑ Amelia Dowler, Curator, British Museum. "A History of the World". www.bbc.co.uk.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ↑ The Cambridge Ancient History, edited by John Boederman, Cambridge University Press, 1997, p. 832
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