Under the Seleucid regime, a nude Apollo Toxotes, seated on an omphalos, testing an arrow or bundle of arrows in his hands and with a bow resting at his feet became the emblematic image on the imperial coinage of the Upper Satrapies. Antiochus I (co-regent in Bactria from c. 292 BC, and sole ruler from 281-261 BC) was first to introduce this motif on Seleucid coinage, replacing the customary image of Zeus that had adorned his father’s coinage and that of Alexander the Great before him (Figures 35, 38, 44).605 Alongside
601 See pp. 129, 192. 602 Iossif (2011), 252-254. 603 Curtis, J. (1984), 25, fig. 4, no. 236. 604 See also Razmjou (2005b), 283-284 on Achaemenid period depictions of Medians with the bow, particularly the royal weapon holder who is dressed in the Median costume. On the bow in other ancient Near Eastern traditions: see Potts (1999), 263, 268, 277, 290, 345 with bibliography on the continuity of the Elamite bow in the Assyrian and Achaemenid periods; Curtis, J. & Tallis (2005), 71, 86, figs. 27-28, 51 on depictions of the Elamite bow with the duck head decoration in the art of the Achaemenid palaces; Merrillees & Sax (2005), 108-110 on the bow as depicted on Achaemenid seals. 605 Iossif (2010); ibid. (2011), 248-250, 257-258; Erikson (2011), 52; Lerner (2017), 13. Erikson argues that Antiochus I introduced the Apollo Toxotes design in c. 288 BC during his co-regency in Bactria. Preceding this, Apollo had been depicted exclusively as a prophetic god on Seleucid coinage
this iconographic development, the dynastic myth of Seleucus I’s descent from Apollo was created (most likely as part of Antiochus I’s propaganda strategy).606
By these means, Apollo became the tutelary deity of the Seleucid dynasty, and the protector of the Seleucids’ subjects. The family’s patron god was struck on silver issues across the network of eastern mints, demonstrating the imperial authority of the Seleucid king and the coined wealth that he commanded.607
Moreover, the widespread image of Apollo Toxotes on these issues propagated the divine legitimacy that was enjoyed by the ruling Hellenistic family, since the god was now considered to have fathered the dynasty’s founder.
The portrayal of Apollo explicitly as an archer god was a conscious choice on behalf of Antiochus I, who descended from a Macedonian father (Seleucus I) and an Iranian mother (Apama - notably the daughter of the Bactrian noble Spitamenes).608 This deity was clearly recognisable to the Asiatic
Greek subjects of the Seleucid Empire, even if the image of Apollo with a bow was less common in the coin iconography compared to the god’s more usual attributes.609 The divine image and its emphasis on the bow, however, could
also appeal to eastern sensibilities, particularly the royal archer of the earlier Achaemenid tradition. 610 Like his Achaemenid predecessor (who encompassed
notions of kingship, legendary heroism and divinely granted prowess), the Apollo Toxotes of the Seleucids intertwined ideas about their political legitimacy and their divine syggeneia or ‘kinship’ with the god. Iossif summarises, “It was [Antiochus I] who found a way to inscribe the Seleukids in
alongside the tripod (an attribute of Apollo and a symbol his prophetic powers) that was struck widely struck on bronze coinage; see Iossif (2011), 263-264, table 3.
606 See the western sources Justin, 15.4.2-9 and Appian Syriaca, 63. The letter OGIS 227 inscribed at
Didyma on the Ionian coast in c. 246 BC from Seleucus II to the Milesians is the earliest written testimony of this dynastic myth of descent. See also the inscription OGIS 212 from Ilion, Asia Minor in which Apollo is named as the founder of the Seleucid family - discussed in greater detail in Iossif (2011), 243-248. 607 See Iossif (2011), 265, table 4. 608 Arrian Anabasis, 7.4.6; Plutarch Demetrius, 31.3. The intermarriage of the Macedonian Seleucus and the Bactrian Apama had a significant influence on the structure of the Seleucid Empire. A royal court was established at Bactria for Antiochus I as co-regent in c. 292 BC, during his father’s reign. From this seat of power, Antiochus I administered the fortification of borders and cities, and founded several urban sites across the Upper Satrapies; Appian, Syriaca, 62; Strabo, 11.10.2; Pliny the Elder, 6.47-48, 93; Houghton & Lorber (2002), 111.
609 See note 605 above. 610 Iossif (2011), 257-258.
the eastern tradition of divine kingship by claiming descent from Apollo and by portraying him as the divine Toxotes [‘Archer’].”611
Some scholarship has sought to equate Antiochus I’s Apollo with indigenous deities of the ancient Near East. His Mesopotamian counterparts include the sun god Shamash, and the god of wisdom Nabû.612 The earliest
attestation of a syncretism between Apollo and an Iranian deity is found in the trilingual inscription of the Xanthian sanctuary of Leto on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, dated to the 4th century BC.613 In the Aramaic version of the
inscription, the Greek Apollo is understood as the Iranian ḥštrpty (Old Ir. *xšaθra-pati- ‘Master of the Kingdom’, a title associated with Mithra). In the east of the Seleucid Empire, Apollo seems to have been generously integrated into the native religious landscape. Pliny the Elder comments that Demodamas, a satrap in Bactria during the reigns of Seleucus I and Antiochus I, erected altars dedicated to Apollo along the Jaxartes River (Syr Darya).614 Antiochus I also
completed various building projects in the east of the empire, notably dedicating a temple at the Bactrian city of Ai Khanoum to Apollo (later built over by Antiochus III in c. 208-206 BC), and indeed a cultic statue of Apollo was discovered in the excavations of the ancient city.615
Other material evidence from this region during the period of the Graeco-Bactrian kings suggests that a connection was drawn between Apollo- Helios and Mithra through solar iconography.616 The image of a radiate Helios
driving a four-horse chariot was depicted on the reverse design of Plato’s (c.
611 Iossif (2011), 249.
612 Erickson (2011), 58-59. Nabû, the son of the supreme deity Marduk, was also identified as the
god of scribes (who played an important role in the Babylonian literary tradition). He was also associated with divine wisdom, and hence considered to have oracular powers. As the leader of the Muses, Apollo was similarly associated with literacy, and was also recognised as the god of prophecy. The omphalos on which Apollo sits on Seleucid coinage was an important symbol of the Apollo’s oracle at Delphi. He was, moreover, the son of Zeus (identified in Mesopotamian religion with Marduk).
613 The inscription from the sanctuary of Leto is published in three parts: Dupont-Sommer (1974);
Laroche (1974); Metzer (1974).
614 Pliny the Elder, 6.49.
615 Zejmal (1985), fig. 204; Pichikyan (1991), 181-182. Note the study by Litvinskiy (2004), 69 - as
cited in Shenkar (2011), 121, note 34 - who argues that the statue does not in fact represent Apollo.
145-140 BC) tetradrachm issues.617 Whether this figure can be interpreted as
the Iranian Mithra in this period is uncertain. Nevertheless, after the demise of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom in the second half of the 2nd century BC, images of
the radiate gods Miiro (Mithra)-Helios were shown centuries later on the reverse of the Kushan king Kanishka’s (c. AD 127-150) gold and copper coin issues (Figure 64), as well as on coins issued by his successor, Huvishka (AD 140-180).618 Here, the iconography associated with the Greek Helios had been
transferred to the native Mithra. Although it cannot be clearly determined when this development began, these material objects from the time of Hellenistic Bactria to the reign of the Kushans has given scholarship reason to argue that the half-Bactrian Antiochus I consciously promoted Apollo in the eastern reaches of the Seleucid Empire as a Greek counterpart to the indigenous Mithra.619 In Greek and Iranian thought, these respective divine beings are both
described as far-shotting archers, and are both connected to the fiery sun.620
The overlapping associations between solar divinities, archer gods, and divine patronage in the ancient Near East are examined further below.