188 PROFESSOR D'ARCY WENTWORTH THOMPSON ON 



and with the Dioscuri on coins of Tarentum. It rose with Sagittarius, and together 

 with it on coins of Tarentum we have Taras (?) armed with a bow and arrow. In its 

 place in the heavens it is closely encircled by Pegasus, Cygnus and Aquila ; the Eagle 

 is found with it on coins of Messene, Istrus, Motya and Sinope, and the Swan on 

 those of Argolis ; while Pegasus is associated with it on coins of Corinth, and is 

 probably also to be understood in the Horse of Rhaucus and the Horse and Rider of 

 Tarentum. 



The statement in Aristotle (H. A. vi. 12, 566b) that the Dolphin disappears for a 



month in summer, crvix^alvei §e kcu acpavl^ecrOai olvtov virb Kvva irepi TpiaicovO' rj/xepa^ (regard- 

 ing which statement Aubert and Wimmer naively say, " iiber diese Verhaltnisse scheinen 

 aus neuer Zeit gar keine Beobachtungen zu existiren ") is simply an astronomical fact 

 concerning the constellation, interpolated into a passage in the main zoological. It was 

 probably the same constellation under another guise that Apollo had to overcome ere 

 he mounted to the sky : Ae\<plvr]v S' eSd/aaa-aev, kou alOepa valev 'AttoXXwv, Nonn. Dionys., 

 xiii. 28. And, passing over a hundred fables all bearing kindred astronomic reference, let 

 me cite one more circumstance in point. We are told by Pausanias (vi. 20, 7) that a 

 brazen Eagle and Dolphin guarded the acpea-ig at Olympia * ; and when we bear in mind 

 that in the heavens Aquila and Delphinus stand opposite to Leo, does it not seem fit 

 and proper that the Eagle and Dolphin should mark the end of the Olympian chariot- 

 course, where the fabled Slayer of the Lion laid down the mimic race-course of the Sun ? 

 The Owl on Athenian coinage is an emblem of great interest, but involved in not a 

 little difficulty. Svoronos takes it, with some hesitation, to correspond to the constel- 

 lation simply known as "Opn? ; but that " bird "-constellation is, in all cases that I am 

 acquainted with, identical with Cygnus the Swan. Although the Owl on Athenian 

 coins is sometimes associated with a lunar crescent, I am, for my part, inclined to look 

 upon it as itself a lunar emblem. We may call to mind, in support of this view, the 

 Euripidean fragment, 



And remembering that Athene in Homer is always nocturnal, and is even definitely 

 stated by Porphyry {Euseb., Pr. JEv. iii. 11) to have been a Moon-Goddess, we find not 

 a little to support the hypothesis. In the light of this conjecture, the common 

 association of the Owl with an Amphora on Athenian coins becomes interesting ; for it 

 may be that the Amphora is the symbol of Aquarius, and the relation of Aquarius to the 

 Moon has been discussed already. t When Athene in the Iliad appears in the shape of a 



* As also in the Circus Maximus at Rome ; cf. Juv. vi. 590, Dion. Cass. xlix. 43. 



t The study of what I take to be the lunar symbolism of the exclusively silver coinage of Attica, and other 

 considerations of a like nature, have led me to the discovery of a singular and suggestive coincidence. We are told by 

 Herodotus (iii. 89) that the values of gold and silver in ancient currency stood to one another in the ratio of 13 : 1 ; 

 but Mommsen (Hist. Mon. Rom., ed. Blacas, i. p. 407 ; cf. Head, Hist. Numorum, p. xxxv.) and others have shown 

 that this statement is only approximately correct, and that the true ratio was 133 : 1. There is no evidence that 

 there were the same fluctuations between the relative values of the two metals which are now so common (Head, I.e.). 

 Two problems are here presented to us for solution : first, How was this ratio kept steady and unchanged during many 



