PHILISTIA. Central Mint. Athenian-styled, circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 14 mm, 3.86 g, 12 h). Head of Athena to right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with three olive leaves and palmette. Rev. Hybrid head composed of a bearded male head to right, with a facing gorgoneion (?), tongue protruding, emerging from the back of the male head at a right angle; all within dotted square border within incuse square. Gitler & Tal XIII.5Dd (this coin). Hendin -. Jeselsohn 216 (same dies). Mildenberg, Palästina, pl. 58, 63 (same obverse die). Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Extremely rare, one of apparently just five known examples. Boldly struck from fresh dies. Athena's nose off flan and with a test cut on the reverse, otherwise, about extremely fine.



Mildenberg interpreted the facing head on the reverse of this drachm as a representation of the Egyptian god Bes, whose image occupies a prominent place in Philistine coinage (Mildenberg, Palästina, p. 384). The authors of the first volume of the Jeselsohn Collection, however, argue that the image should instead be understood as a gorgoneion: the open mouth, bared teeth, and protruding tongue are clearly visible, all characteristic features of an archaic gorgoneion.

This identification does not necessarily imply that the full Greek myth of Perseus and Medusa was intended here. The gorgoneion was not confined to Greek art, but belonged to a broader eastern Mediterranean visual tradition and may have reached Philistine coinage through Phoenician or other Levantine channels. It should therefore not be understood simply as a Greek mythological borrowing. The hybrid image probably carried an apotropaic meaning: the fearsome gorgoneion may have served as a protective device, while its visual assimilation to Bes, the ancient Egyptian protective god, may have been deliberate (cf. the note on lot 101 below).