Gilgamesh and Akka, by Dina Katz (Library of Oriental Texts, Vol. 1, STYX Publications, 1993), explores the short narrative poem in standard literary Sumerian which tells the tale of Gilgamesh of Uruk’s war against Akka of Kish.
GILGAMESH
In the tale, Akka of Kish demanded physical labor from the people of Uruk “to finish the wells, to finish all the wells of the land.” Gilgamesh, in response, asked the elders of Uruk for permission to wage war against Kish. The elders denied Gilgamesh permission to wage war against Kish, at which point Gilgamesh took his case for war to the able-bodied men of Uruk directly:
Since Gilgamesh, the Lord of Kulaba
had placed his trust in Inanna,
He did not take to heart the words of his city’s elders.
Gilgamesh before the able-bodied men of his city again
Laid the matter, seeking for words:
‘To finish the wells, to finish all the wells of the land,
To finish all the shallow wells of the land,
To finish all the deep wells with hoisting ropes,
Let us not submit to the house of Kish,
Let us smite it with weapons.’
The convoked assembly of his city’s able-bodied men answered Gilgamesh:
‘As they say: To stand up, and to sit down,
To protect the king’s son,
And to hold back the donkeys,
Who has breath for that?
Let us not submit to the house of Kish, Let us smite it with weapons.’
Gilgamesh and Akka, Lines 15-29 (Trans. Dina Katz)
The tale records that Gilgamesh and his able-bodied men went on to wage successful war against Akka and Kish.
Katz identified the passage that I am so enamored of, and which I quoted at the beginning of this post, as “puzzling.” She noted that a previous scholar felt that the expression was likely a “common saw” [i.e., a common Sumerian saying] whose meaning was lost to us. She noted, however, that the verbs “to stand” and “to sit” were often associated with the participants of the public assembly. It would appear, from the context, that the expression suggests having no more need or patience for further discussion due to appropriate consideration having been given (as in an assembly), pressing exigent conditions (as in a security situation), or exasperating circumstances (as in corralling or guiding donkeys).
Herman L. J. Vanstiphout, in reviewing Katz’s work in “A New Edition of Gilgamesh and Akka” (Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 119, no. 2, American Oriental Society, 1999, pp. 293–96) generally approved of Katz’s scholarly contributions and, with respect to the translation of the particular passage, took exception only with the wording regarding holding back the donkeys. He conceded that translating the line as “to hold back” “might surely be all right in a general sense” but seemed to suggest that something along the lines of “to hold the reins” may have been (more?) appropriate. For my part, I find the translation endearing, and intend to invoke the phrase regarding the donkeys, as translated, however perplexing it may seem, whenever I seek to end a discussion and perhaps give exasperated approval to a request in which I am in agreement.
Central Asia: Sogdiana, reproduced after Vaissière, 2005
“City of Glory” almost sounds as if it were the appellation for a city in the HBO series “Game of Thrones,” such as Pentos, Qarth, or Astapor. But in reality it was given to a wealthy merchant city in Sogdiana, as attested to by the coin illustrated below.
The coin is a very rare AE cash from the Sogdiana merchant city of Paikend (Paykent), ca. 640-710, which has always fascinated me and is worthy of more research. The obverse features the Bukhara tamgha at top, Chinese yuan below, and Sogdian text to left & right. The reverse features a cross above & below the central hole. The scholar Aleksandr Naymark has read the Sogdian text on the obverse as PRN / KND, “city of glory,” and suggested that this was a local issue under a Christian ruler, in opposition to the kings of Bukhara. The coin illustrated was Lot 133 in Stephen Album Rare Coin Auction 38.
Paikend: Fortifications in City Wall. Image by Don Croner
The oasis city of Paikend, which was first inhabited c. the 4th century BC, existed until the Zarafshan River changed its course in the 12th сentury, at which point the city was abandoned by its residents. The abandoned city was subsequently buried over time under the sands of the Kyzylkum Desert, resulting in the city being well preserved for future generations of inquisitive archaeologists. Excavations on the site first started in 1914 by L.A. Zimin, representative of the St. Petersburg school of Asian studies, and continue to this day by the Archaeology Institute, Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences, and Andrey Omelchenko, of the Hermitage Museum in Russia.
AR Didrachm from Greek colony of Selinus in Sicily (c. 450BC). Obv: Inscription, Hercules about to club the Cretan bull. Rev: Inscription above, River-god Hypsas sacrifices at altar with serpent coiled around it; at right selinon (celery) leaf above crane.ANS 1957.172.629. American Numismatic Society.
Yarab is an Anglicized spelling of the Slovak surname Jaráb. It is a zoonym, which is a name of an animal. That animal is a crane, for in 19th century Slovak Jaráb is akin to the Czech word jeřáb, which means crane. Accordingly, when I happened across the the above coin from Selinus, depicting a crane on its reverse, I had to learn a little bit more about the history of Selinus and the imagery appearing on this stunning coin.
Selinus is located on the south-west coast of Sicily and, according to Thucydides, was founded in 628BC by Greek colonists from Megara Hyblaea, a Greek colony on the eastern side of Sicily. It was the most western Greek colony on Sicily and one of the first Greek colonies in Sicily to issue coins.
The colony covered a large and well-planned urban and sacred area. The sacred area is reputed to have had ten separate temples dating from the 6th to 5th century BC. The Temple of Hera is amongst the city’s most famous ruins.
The World History Encyclopedia article on Selinus records that the city was completely redesigned between 580-570BC and that the city is one of the best examples of ancient town planning. It also notes that indicators of the city’s wealth were the presence of a theatre, its prolific mint, and its satellite colonies (such as Eraclea Minoa, established in 570 BC).
Selinus allied itself with Carthage in 480BC and was often at war with rival city Segesta on the northern coast of the island. Although initially ruled by an oligarchy, Selinus was governed by tyrants throughout the 5th century BC. Selinus was sacked by Carthage in 409BC after Hannibal besieged the city for nine days; some 16,000 of the city’s inhabitants were slain after the city fell. The city was rebuilt by the Syracusan exile Hermocrates, but was under Carthaginian control in the 4th century BC. During the first Punic War (264-241BC), the city was abandoned.
As mentioned above, Selinus was among the the first cities to strike coins in Sicily. In Greek Coinages of Southern Italy and Sicily, N.K. Rutter records that “the obverse of the first coins had a canting type represent the name of the city in a visual form: a leaf of the celery plant, selinon in Greek, mostly presented in a stylized way with three parts, a central frond supported by a frond on either side. Later versions of the leaf are more complex. The reverse bears an incuse square, on the earlier issues divided into triangles, usually with raised and depressed sections” (p. 102). These types may have been struck from c. 530 -470BC.
The coin which is of especial interest to this post, however, was struck c.450BC and was of a very different type. Of this type, Rutter says the following (pp. 138-139):
Reverse of Selinus AR didrachm (c. 450BC). Reverse: Hypsas, river-god, standing, sacrificing over altar with entwined serpent, to right selinon (celery) leaf over crane. ANS 1957.172.629 American Numismatic Society
“A little later, perhaps around 450, Selinus revived the minting activity that it seems to have abandoned around the time of the Carthaginian attack in 480 (or perhaps a decade later) with a series of coins rich in religious imagery and references to local cults. … On earlier coins of Selinus a leaf of the celery plant had been the main type, now it is merely a small symbol in the field. The didrachms repeat the theme of sacrifice on the reverse – performed now by Hypsas the other river-god of Selinus – while the obverse shows Heracles fighting the Cretan bull: the hero brandishes his club in his right hand, while with his left he seizes one of the bull’s horns. The cult of Heracles is well-attested at Selinus and had a special interest for its citizens: it linked them to Argos, home of the dynasty that gave birth to Heracles, and also to Cnossos in Crete, where the hero had performed one of his celebrated labors.”
For those unfamiliar, Eurystheus’s demand that Heracles capture and bring the Cretan bull to him alive was the Seventh Labor of Heracles. It was a labor easily accomplished. See Apollodorus. The Library, Volume I: Books 1-3.9. Translated by James G. Frazer. Loeb Classical Library 121. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921. pp. 198-201 or, perhaps more readily available, see The Labors of Hercules.
Regarding the bird appearing on the reverse of this type and identified as a crane (which it is currently identified as in most references and databases (such as the American Numismatic Society’s database) and most trade offerings (see various offerings as recorded in coinarchives.com and acsearch.info), it was first identified as a crane as early as 1876 in the British Museum catalogue. But this identification was not unchallenged, apparently. For a period, numismatists, being uncertain, identified the bird simply as a marsh bird, and then were prone to identify it as a heron or egret. See pp. 90-91 of the following article for a discussion of this issue: Lloyd, A. H. “THE COIN TYPES OF SELINUS AND THE LEGEND OF EMPEDOCLES.” The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, vol. 15, no. 58, 1935, pp. 73–93. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42664348. Accessed 14 Aug. 2021.
It is a historical nugget which has been oft-told in newspapers, blogs, and classrooms over the years. I reposted a telling of the story on Facebook several years ago and, having come across the recently again, am inclined to tell the story again. It simply deserves to be told, again and again.
Jordan (or Jourdan) Anderson was born somewhere in Tennessee around 1825 and by age 7 or 8 had been sold to a plantation owned by Gen. Paulding Anderson in Big Spring, Tennessee. Patrick Henry Anderson was one of the general’s sons and, by the mid-1840s owned Jordan and other slaves. Jordan Anderson married Amanda McGregor in 1848 and they had 11 children. During the Civil War, Union troops camped on the plantation. The Provost-Marshall-General of the Department of Nashville freed Jordan in 1864. After being freed, Jordan Anderson made his way to Dayton, Ohio, where he spent the remaining 40 years of his life.
In July 1865, shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War, Jordan Anderson’s former master, Confederate Col. Patrick Henry Anderson, wrote to him asking him to return to the plantation to help him to restore it. Anderson’s letter in response, dictated from his home in Ohio in August 1865, was also published in many newspapers at the time, including the Cincinnati Commercial. It is thought that he was assisted in the endeavor by his abolitionist employer, Valentine Winters. The response is viewed by some as an example of “slave humor” or satire one a level with that written by Mark Twain, whereas I view it as a simply elegant, human, and moving response that encapsulates in remarkably civil tones the day-to-day violence and injustice of the South’s so-called “peculiar institution” and a profound assertion of dignity.
The complete text of Anderson’s response to his former master is as follows:
“Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865.
To my old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee.
Sir:
I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get $25 a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy (the folks call her Mrs. Anderson), and the children, Milly, Jane, and Grundy, go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.
As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At $25 a month for me, and $2 a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to $11,680. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.
In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve and die, if it come to that, than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.
From your old servant, Jourdon Anderson
P.S.— Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.”
The Silver tetradrachm heading this post features on the obverse a helmeted and diademed bust of Eucratides, bare shoulders, throwing javelin to his left. The tetradrachm’s reverse has the Greek inscription ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔΟΥ (of great king Eucratides) around an image of the dioscuri (the twin brothers and sons of Zeus, Pollux and Castor) charging right holding long lances and palms. Peter Thonemann, commenting on this highly individualist and explicitly martial portraiture opined as follows: “… we may be grateful that not all kings paraded their military credentials in quite so butch a fashion as Eucratides I of Bactria.”
The Hellenistic World: Using Coins as Sources by Peter Thonemann
Peter Thonemann’s wonderful work, The Hellenistic World: Using Coins as Sources, is a superb introductory survey of both the history and coins of the Hellenistic world from c. 323-31BC. It is engagingly written and well-illustrated, often with coins from the collection of the American Numismatic Society. Although many of the coin photographs which are reproduced are slightly disappointing due to being in black and white and produced life size, when enlargements would have been more suitable, the coins selected for the work were well chosen and served the survey and the reader well. And, since the author and publisher were so careful to credit the sources of the photographs, when a particular coin caught my fancy, I was often able to go the the source on the internet, such as the ANS’s online collection database, and see the original color photographs of the coin.
So, after I read about Eucratides I the Great of Bactria (c. 170-145) and his stunning coins in Thonemann’s work, then saw the coins in their glory on the ANS database, and followed up with an interesting conversation about the coins and what type of workout routines were around in the ancient world with my good friend SF (more about the exercise and workout routines of the ancients below), I knew that a post was forthcoming.
First, what do we know about Eucratides I? From the 2nd century AD writer and historian Justin, we have this small snippet of information:
“Almost at the same time that Mithridates ascended the throne among the Parthians, Eucratides began to reign among the Bactrians; both of them being great men. But the fortune of the Parthians, being the more successful, raised them, under this prince, to the highest degree of power; while the Bactrians, harassed with various wars, lost not only their dominions, but their liberty; for having suffered from contentions with the Sogdians, the Drangians, and the Indians, they were at last overcome, as if exhausted, by the weaker Parthians. Eucratides, however, carried on several wars with great spirit, and though much reduced by his losses in them, yet, when he was besieged by Demetrius king of the Indians, with a garrison of only three hundred soldiers, he repulsed, by continual sallies, a force of sixty thousand enemies. Having accordingly escaped, after a five months’ siege, he reduced India under his power. But as he was returning from the country, he was killed on his march by his son, with whom he had shared his throne, and who was so far from concealing the murder, that, as if he had killed an enemy, and not his father, he drove his chariot through his blood, and ordered his body to be cast out unburied.” Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, XLI 6.1-5
Appropriate to a king assuming the title “the Great” on his coins (a numismatic innovation of Eucratides, Eucratides also is famous for another numismatic feat, as explained by CoinWeek columnist Mike Markowitz in Metal Monsters: The Biggest Ancient Coins (march 18, 2014):
“[Eucratides] commissioned the largest surviving gold coin struck in antiquity: a 20-stater piece, 58 mm in diameter, weighing 169.2 grams. That’s nearly five and a half ounces. The unique example was found in 1867 in Bukhara (Uzbekistan), nearly 300 miles northwest of the Baktrian heartland. Eventually acquired by Napoleon III, it resides today in the Bibliothéque nationale in Paris.
On the obverse we see the king in profile, wearing a plumed cavalry helmet. On the reverse, the twin heroes Castor and Pollux carry long lances and palm branches and ride prancing horses surrounded by a carelessly lettered inscription: ‘Great King Eucratides.’”
A quick side note before moving on to the portion of the post answering my friend SF’s query about exercise and workout routines in antiquity: as king of Bactria, Eucratides I ruled over the city of Ai Khanoum, which we discussed in an earlier post.
Jack W. Berryman wrote a short essay entitled Motion and rest: Galen on exercise and health published in The Lancet (Vol. 380, Issue 9838, 21 July 2012, pp. 210-211). From the essay is the following relevant quote:
“Exercise was an important component of ancient medical theory and a physician’s duties included the preservation and promotion of health as well as the prevention of disease. In this context, physicians in antiquity emphasised the centrality of exercise and diet, or what was known as regimen, as a key part of one’s way of life.
From the time of Galen (c. 129-210AD), a bronze coin (Anchialus mint) of the Roman Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211 AD) featuring Asklepios standing right and and Hygieia standing left on the reverse. Hygieia inspired Galen’s theory of hygiene. ANS 1998.13.10 American Numismatic Society
It was Hippocrates (c 460–370 BC) who wrote three books on regimen and noted that ‘eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise.’ Galen (c 129–210 AD), who borrowed much from Hippocrates, structured his medical “theory” upon the “naturals” (of, or with nature—physiology), the “non-naturals” (things not innate—health), and the “contra-naturals” (against nature—pathology). Central to Galen’s theory was hygiene (named after the goddess of health Hygieia) and the uses and abuses of Galen’s “six things non-natural”. Galen’s theory was underpinned by six factors external to the body over which a person had some control: air and environment; food (diet) and drink; sleep and wake; motion (exercise) and rest; retention and evacuation; and passions of the mind (emotions). Galen proposed that these factors should be used in moderation since too much or too little would put the body in imbalance and lead to disease or illness.”
Jarrett A. Lobell wrote a short snippet, entitled The Ancient Pursuit of Wellness: Exercise, in the September/October 2021 issue of Archaeology, which explicitly linked exercise to military preparation among the Greeks. I quote more extensively from Lobell:
Greek Footrace
“For the ancient Greeks, exercise meant competition, often in organized festivals such as the Olympics—the word “athlete” comes from the ancient Greek athlos, meaning contest. Participation in these events was limited to young men of certain classes. Exercise was also a crucial part of preparation for Greek military service, and thus women were excluded. But in the Roman world, exercise was more universally popular, and both men and women were frequent participants. Romans often exercised at the public baths, where both sexes and most social classes regularly gathered, says classicist Nigel Crowther of Western University. Men might play ball, run, wrestle, box, or lift weights. Women swam, played a hoop-rolling game called trochus, and especially favored ball games. ‘Galen suggests that ball games were good training for the fitness of both body and mind,’ Crowther says.”
“There is a story that was often told of Milo of Croton. This was an Ancient Greek athlete from the Greek city-state of Croton located in what is now southern Italy. He lived in the 6th century BC and was training for the Olympics.
One of the ways that he was training was by taking a newly born bull, hoisting it up on his shoulders and carrying it for some distance. He would do it every day. As time passed, the bull would grow larger and so Milo kept on hoisting more and more weight. This culminated with him walking into the Olympic stadium with a full grown bull on his shoulders.
So over time he was increasing the weight he was lifting. This is basically the birth of progressive overload. The ancients knew that if you want your muscles to grow and get stronger, you need to lift heavier and heavier weights.
Another principle from the ancient world is that of periodization. Many gladiator schools probably used periodization training, which is an organization of training that splits training into blocks of time, each one focusing on different skills. They would be training all day and split their training into units of time during which they would focus on just one skill.
The ancient gladiators also knew about the intensity of training and that you should not go into training full speed at the beginning, but need to warm up first, otherwise you risk injury. Galen wrote that intensity should be increased gradually: “Intensity should be gradually increased, peaking at the end. This should be of special concern in order to avoid injury to competitors.”
The cool-down process was also important. Hippocrates (an Ancient Greek doctor) said that “those who walk after exercising will then have a stronger and more rested body.” This means that there should be a period of cool down after intense training and people should not fall down and lie on the ground immediately, but instead the person should cool down by walking around. Also on rest days, according to Hippocrates, the athlete should not do completely nothing, but instead do something of low intensity.
The ancients were very aware of the dangers of over-training and many of the doctors preached against it. They knew that the body needs rest in order to recover from intense training and also that your body achieves the best results if rest is a part of your routine.
Throughout their training, the gladiators would use different types of equipment and do all kinds of varied exercises.
Vigorous exercises: These were exercises performed with strength, but without speed. Examples of these include: digging, picking up any kind of heavy load and either standing still with it or walking (especially up a hill), climbing a rope, hanging from rope or beam for as long as possible, holding arms up (with or without weights) while partner tried pushing them in a downwards direction…etc. These exercises show that the Ancient Greeks and Romans had an understanding of overload (including progressive overload) and its positive effects on building strength and muscles.
Speed exercises: Here the primary objective was speed, apart from strength and force. Examples of these include: running, shadow boxing, hitting the punching bag, running around with balls, arm and leg exercises like drill stuff…etc.
Greek Wrestlers
A particular example of this type of exercise that was performed has the Greek name “pitylysma”. The exercise goes like this: start by standing on tip toes, stretch your arms upwards, move one arm quickly forward, while moving the other one backwards, roll quickly on the ground, quickly come up, stand erect and start jumping up and down, sometimes with a backward kick, sometimes bringing each leg forward in an alternating fashion.
Violent exercises: These combined speed and strength. Exercises classified as vigorous became violent if you increased their speed – jumping continuously without rest, or any speed exercises performed with weight became violent – moving around quickly in heavy armor.
The word ‘violent’ in this context could be better understood if you use it as a synonym for the word ‘power.’ A recommendation of Galen for these types of exercises was to rest between the different individual exercises.”
So, yes, the highly muscled king appearing on those beautiful coins likely had plenty of thoughtful exercise routines behind those sculpted muscles — or he kept buff by throwing lots of javelins while trying to preserve his kingdom.
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