The Abraham Cowley
Text and Image Archive
Cosmic Coordinates / Empire without End
Obv.: Radiate head of Sol facing Rev.: Crescent moon, two stars and pellet above, [ROMA] below Roman republic, AR denarius, Aquillia 1 (109-08 BC) Obv.: Radiate head of Sol r., X below chin Rev.: Luna crowned with crescent driving biga r., three stars above, fourth star and MN AQVIL below, ROMA in exergue Roman republic, AR denarius, Manlia 1 (118-107 BC) Obv.: Helmeted Roma head r., ROMA before, SER behind Rev.: Radiate Sol in quadriga facing, rising from waves, X to l., crescent moon to r., A MANLI Q F below Roman republic, AR denarius, Lucretia 2 (74 BC) Obv.: Radiate head of Sol r. Crescent moon, seven stars surrounding, TRIO LVCRET Trajan, AR denarius, RIC 91 (103-11 AD) Obv.: Trajan bust r., drapery on far shoulder, IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P Rev.: Eternity holding heads of Sun and Moon, COS V P P SPQR OPTIMO PRINC surrounding, AET AVG in field Hadrian, AR denarius, RIC 81 (117-38 AD) Obv.: Hadrian bust r., drapery on far shoulder, IMP CAESAR TRAIAN HADRIANVS AVG Rev.: Eternity holding heads of Sun and Moon, P M TR P COS III Cf. the sun and moon caps on the Pillars of Hercules (?) in Gustave Moreau's painting of that hero's egregious "Thirteenth Labor," described here in Some Labors of Hercules. (A similar cap for a column with Cromwell's initials appears in William Faithorne's engraving "The Embleme of ENGLANDS Distractions" from 1658.) The sun and moon are expounded as hieroglyphs for eternity in Piero Valeriano Bolzani's Hieroglyphica 35.17 citing Horapollo 1 ("Saeculum"). As in many medieval and Renaissance creation-tableaux, the sun and moon also preside cosmologically and structurally over Cowley's Plantarum in the original two-book edition of 1662; thus Books I and start by invoking sun and moon, Phoebus and Luna, in a sense also linking the two to distinct gendered visions of nature. "Empire without end" is the destiny of Rome (cf. "Rome the eternal") in the phrasing of Virgil, Aen. 1.279. Solar Currency // Plus Ultra / Golden Fleece // Emblem of Cambridge, Cowley's Alma Mater Alexander and Priests of the Trees of the Sun and Moon Return to Mythica / Return to Numismatica |