Seleukos IV 187BC Apollo Tripod Seleucid King Ancient Greek Coin i37919

Seleucid Kingdom


Seleukos IV
, Philopator – King: 187-175 B.C.
Serrated Edge Bronze 21mm (10.25 grams) Struck circa 187-175 B.C.
Reference: Sear 6968; B.M.C. 4. 32,22; SC 1315.6n; HGC 9, 584
Laureate head of
Apollo
right, monogram behind.
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΣEΛΕYKOY
either side of naked
Apollo
standing left, holding arrow and resting
left arm on tripod; monogram in field to left.

The kingdom bequeathed by Antiochos the Great to his son, Seleukos IV, was
very different from the one which he himself had ruled just a few years before.
Asia minor was lost to the kings of Pergamon, the eastern provinces of Parthia
and Baktria were no firmly established as independent kingdoms, and in addition
Seleukos had to pay a heavy annual war-indemnity to the Romans. What was left to
the Seleukid realm he seems to have governed wisely and well until 175 B.C. when
he was murdered by his minister Heliodoros..

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A sacrificial tripod is a three-legged piece of religious furniture
used for offerings or other ritual procedures. As a seat or stand, the
tripod
is the most stable furniture
construction for uneven ground, hence its use is universal and ancient. It is
particularly associated with
Apollo
and the
Delphic oracle
in
ancient Greece
, and the word “tripod” comes
from the Greek meaning “three-footed.”

 

Apollo and
Heracles
struggle for the Delphic
tripod (Attic
black-figure

hydria
, c. 520 BC)

Ancient Greece

The most famous tripod of ancient Greece was the
Delphic
tripod from which the
Pythian priestess
took her seat to deliver the
oracles
of the deity. The seat was formed by a
circular slab on the top of the tripod, on which a branch of
laurel
was deposited when it was unoccupied by
the priestess. In this sense, by Classical times the tripod was sacred to
Apollo
. The
mytheme
of
Heracles
contesting with Apollo for the tripod
appears in vase-paintings older than the oldest written literature. The oracle
originally may have been related to the primal deity, the Earth.

 

Priestess of Delphi (1891), as imagined by
John Collier
; the Pythia is
inspired by
pneuma
rising from below as she
sits on a tripod

Another well-known tripod in Delphi was the
Plataean Tripod
; it was made from a tenth part
of the spoils taken from the
Persian
army after the
Battle of Plataea
. This consisted of a golden
basin, supported by a
bronze

serpent
with three heads (or three serpents
intertwined), with a list of the states that had taken part in the war inscribed
on the coils of the serpent. The golden bowl was carried off by the
Phocians
during the
Third Sacred War
(356–346 BC); the stand was
removed by the emperor
Constantine
to
Constantinople
in 324, where in modern
Istanbul
it still can be seen in the
hippodrome
, the Atmeydanı, although in
damaged condition: the heads of the serpents have disappeared, however one is
now on display at the nearby Istanbul Archaeology Museums. The inscription,
however, has been restored almost entirely. Such tripods usually had three
ears (rings which served as handles) and frequently had a central upright as
support in addition to the three legs.

Tripods frequently are mentioned by
Homer
as prizes in
athletic games
and as complimentary gifts; in
later times, highly decorated and bearing inscriptions, they served the same
purpose. They also were used as dedicatory
offerings
to the deities, and in the dramatic
contests at the Dionysia
the victorious
choregus
(a wealthy citizen who bore the
expense of equipping and training the chorus) received a crown and a tripod. He
would either dedicate the tripod to some deity or set it upon the top of a
marble structure erected in the form of a small circular temple in a street in
Athens
, called the street of tripods, 
from the large number of memorials of this kind. One of these, the
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
, erected by him
to commemorate his victory in a dramatic contest in 335 BC, still stands. The
form of the victory tripod, now missing from the top of the Lysicrates monument,
has been rendered variously by scholars since the 18th century.

 

An ancient Greek coin c. 330-300 BC. Laureate head of Apollo (left)
and ornate tripod (right).

Martin L. West
writes that the sibyl at Delphi
shows many traits of
shamanistic
practices, likely inherited or
influenced from Central Asian practices. He cites her sitting in a cauldron on a
tripod, while making her prophecies, her being in an ecstatic trance state,
similar to shamans, and her utterings, unintelligible.

According to Herodotus (The Histories, I.144), the victory tripods were not
to be taken from the temple sanctuary precinct, but left there as dedications.

Sometimes the tripod was used as a support for a
lebes
or cauldron or for supporting other items
such as a vase.

• 
  

  Delphic tripod (red-figured
  bell-krater
  ,
  Paestum
  , c. 330 BC)

Ancient China

 

A
ding
from the late
Shang Dynasty
.

Tripod pottery have been part of the archaeological assemblage in China since
the earliest Neolithic cultures of
Cishan
and
Peiligang
in the 7th and 8th millennium BC.
Sacrificial tripods were also found in use in ancient
China
usually cast in bronze but sometimes
appearing in ceramic form. They are often referred to as “dings”
and usually have three legs, but in some usages have four legs.

The Chinese use sacrificial tripods in modern times, such as in 2005, when a
“National Unity Tripod” made of bronze was presented by the central Chinese
government to the government of northwest China’s
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
to mark its
fiftieth birthday. It was described as a traditional Chinese sacrificial vessel
symbolizing unity.

In
Greek
and
Roman mythology
, Apollo
,
is one of the most important and diverse of the
Olympian deities
. The ideal of the
kouros
(a
beardless youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the
sun; truth and prophecy;
archery
;
medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son
of Zeus
and
Leto, and has a
twin
sister, the chaste huntress
Artemis
.
Apollo is known in Greek-influenced
Etruscan mythology
as Apulu. Apollo was worshiped in both
ancient Greek
and
Roman religion
, as well as in the modern
Greco
–Roman
Neopaganism
.

As the patron of Delphi
(Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an
oracular
god — the prophetic deity of the
Delphic Oracle
.
Medicine and healing were associated with Apollo, whether through the god
himself or mediated through his son
Asclepius
,
yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly
plague
as well as one who had the ability to cure. Amongst the god’s
custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over
colonists
, and as the patron defender of herds and flocks. As the leader of
the Muses
(Apollon
Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god
of music and poetry
.
Hermes
created
the lyre
for him,
and the instrument became a common
attribute
of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called
paeans
.

In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo
Helios he became identified among Greeks with
Helios
,
god of
the sun
, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with
Selene
,
goddess
of the moon
.
In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to
find any conflation of Apollo with
Sol
among the
Augustan poets
of the first century, not even in the conjurations of
Aeneas
and
Latinus
in
Aeneid
XII
(161–215).
Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological
texts until the third century CE.

Seleucus IV Philopator (Greek:
Σέλευκος Δ’ Φιλοπάτωρ), ruler of the
Hellenistic

Seleucid Empire
, reigned from 187 BC to 175 BC
over a realm.

He was compelled by financial necessities, created in part by the heavy
war-indemnity exacted by Rome, to pursue an ambitious policy. In an effort to
collect money to pay the Romans, he sent his minister
Heliodorus
to Jerusalem to seize the temple treasury. On his return,
Heliodorus assassinated Seleucus, and seized the throne for himself.

The true heir
Demetrius
, son of Seleucus, was now being retained in Rome as a hostage, and
the kingdom was seized by the younger brother of Seleucus,
Antiochus IV Epiphanes
. Antiochus managed to oust Heliodorus and an infant
son of Seleucus, also named Antiochus, was formal head of state for a few years
until Epiphanes had him murdered.

 External links

• Seleucus IV Philopator
  entry in historical sourcebook by Mahlon H. Smith