APOLLO, on the Omphalos

Reverse:

Silver tetradrachm, of King Antiochus (Hierax? 246-227 B.C., younger son of Antochus II and Laodice)
British Museum Catalogue Seleucids 9
cf. D. Sear, Greek Coins and their Values, 2 #6918-21.

Apollo, seated on the omphalos, holding an arrow,
his bow resting on the omphalos , the sacred stone
placed at Delphi by Zeus.



When Zeus was born, to prevent him from being swallowed by Kronos, Rhea and Gaia substitued a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which Kronos indeed swallowed. When he was forced to regurgitate it later, along with Zeus' five siblings, the stone became a relic of the occasion. See Hesiod, Theogony 467-500.

Property of the
Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures
California State Univ. Northridge
copyright Feb. 1998