extract from the Catalogue of the Ward-Coonley collection of meteorites, by Henry A. Ward. 1904 edition.
XI. MEDALS OF METEORITES. The people of antiquity looked upon the heavenly bodies as the places of abode of gods and being higher than mankind. Thus it came to pass that they gave divine worship to objects which were seen to fall from the celestail spaces. They built special temples, in which they preserved them with sacred care. They were also displayed for public worship under a priest appointed for the special purpose. These Meteorites received from the early Greeks the name Betyls, probably from the earlier Hebraic Beth-el, or home of God. In the early centuries--both B.C. and A.D.--the habit prevailed in Macedonia, Cyprus, Mallos, Perge, Sidon, Tripolis, Tyrus and many other places to make medals to commemorate the fall of meteorites. Such medals were struck by order of Philip II, Alexander III, Augustus, Caligula, Vespasian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Heliogabalus, and others. Dr Aristides Brezina, of Vienna, has given much study to this numismatic meteorology. From him our collection has received a series of sixty casts or replica of these medals. We give below Dr. Brezina's list of these with his prefatory words: BETYL COINS. By Dr. Aristides Brezina As the ancients supposed the stars to be the domiciles of gods, falling stars and falling meteorites signified to them the descending of a god or the sending of his image to the earth. These envoys were received with divine honors, embalmed and draped and worshipped in temples by emperors and autonomous cities. In general the image of a stone was first given in naturalistic manner, then by and by became more human-like. Many of these betyl coins represent stones expressly reported to have fallen from heaven. They present many common features, the likeness to obelisks or cones, and later on a half-human likeness or half-iconic form. So it came that similar representations of unknown origin were likewise supposed to represent meteorites in the same manner as among meteorites are recorded those seen to fall and others which had been only found and had been supposed to be meteorites because of the likeness to the former and their difference from terrestrial rocks. Betyls reported to have fallen from heaven are the Ompholos of Delphi, represented on coins of sixty-five towns and countries; the stone of Emisa (El Gabol) from seven towns; Zeus Katabates of Kyrrboro and Anazarbos, Zeus Keraunios (two towns); stone of Aphrodite Paphia (five towns); Artemis Ephesia (sixty-nine towns); stone of Astarte (eight towns); stones of Athena (seventeen towns). Betyl coins accepted by analogy are: The Pyramids of Apollon, the Stones of Zeus Dolicheros of Tarsos and of Zeus Kasios of Seleucia, the Simulacres of Artemis Pergia, Samian Hera, Persephone, etc., together 342 towns. Related celestial bodies are the Comets, represented on the coins of Rome and (in modern times) of Silesia. The present collection of sixty coins with meteorits symbols represents nineteen deites and thirty-seven towns. [Footnote..The full collection of Betyl medals of Dr. Brezina number several hundred kinds.] [ Lars, I have also some pictures from the 1901 edition which I will send seperate ] In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> you wrote: > Hello all > > Does anyone have an idea of how many different old Romans have relation to > meteorites ? > > And does anyone have pictures/data of them ? > > If so, I will be happy if someone will send me the pics. > I have a fast connection so hi reolution is ok. > > Best wishes > Lars Pedersen > > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > > -- Eric Hutton ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
