Associating the image with the myth on ancient Cretan coins: Three case-studies

Abstract

Cretan coinage is characterized by a multitude of iconographic types, very often mythological in content. Various mythical figures and episodes are often difficult to identify or interpret due to either lack of clues that would lead to an interpretation or to the fact that could be identifiable with more than one existing myth. Thus, the identification of imagery on Cretan coins is not always self evident. Three major mints of the island are examined in this paper in order to investigate local myths, compared with the mythological tradition of mainland Greece; the myth of the Tree Nymph of Gortyn, the myth of the Labyrinth of Knossos and the myth of the Dog-nursed Infant of Kydonia. Cretan cities, through coin imagery and by carefully selecting the represented mythical figures, were bonding theircitizens with a certain heritage, offering a sense of belonging, continuation and ethnic pride differentiating themselves from other ethnic groups and city states of the island.