Need help: Mt. Argaeus

[guy]

I was hoping to start a post in Numismatica revolving around the subject of Mt. Argaeus. This mountain is found in Cappadocia, appeared on coins, and may have influenced the Emperor Julian. (Stay tuned: more on this later.)

 

My question: What was its role in Ancient mythology? What was the myth surrounding this mountain?

 

Thanks ahead of time.

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited October 20, 2010 by guy

[Ursus]

Never freakin' heard of it until today.

 

High mountains were sometimes cult centers for important gods (Zeus and Eastern deities identified with Zeus often had an altar on a mountain). Perhaps it played some role in local Anatolian cult, then. But I never heard of it before today.

[GhostOfClayton]

I thought it was on the Moon. Shows what I know!

Edited October 20, 2010 by GhostOfClayton

[guy]

I thought it was on the Moon. Shows what I know!

 

Thanks, but I'm still looking for something on the mythology of the mountain on Earth.

 

Here's some information I found:

 

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=25089.30;wap2

 

The Mount Argaios (or Latin 'Argaeus') is the highest mountain in Asia minor. 3916m high, volcanic and mostly covered with snow on top. Today it's called Erciyes Dagi, and at its foot lays the city of Caesareia, in early days called Mazaka, today Kayseri. The Argaios was a sacred mountain already in the times of the Hattits which have called him 'harara'. It is an very impressive mountain, due to its heighth and its volcanic activities.

 

Iconography:

The pics of the Argaios on coins are rather similar. It is always trigonal and put together by parts which look like rocks. In the midth there is often a circle decorated with dots. The suggestion that this could be a flower seems to be discarded. Most probably it should be a cave perhaps for a cult statue(?). The figure of the Argaios is always rounded by needle-shaped lines or cones. These should be flames as symbols of his volcanic activities as could seen on others types too. The similarity of its pics is an evidence that it probably is the depiction of a real cult picture of the mountain, a so-called Agalma, which could be put in a temple. This theory is approved by the second coin where the cult statue of the Mount Argaios stands on an altar.

 

On some types on the summit of the Argaios is seen a star, a crescent, the radiate Sol, or an eagle. Then there are types where the Argaios is carried by a man in a quadriga (probably Septimius Severus) or a rare type where the Argaios is seen on a chart dragged by two elephants. Then there is known a Tyche turreted with the Argaios and the personification of Cappadocia holding the Argaios.

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited October 21, 2010 by guy

[Maty]

Mountain tops were the usual sacrificial places for Persian religion, so you might do better looking up the significance of the mountain in Zoroastrianism rather than in classical myth. Mithridates VI, for instance, does a huge mountaintop sacrifice after the second mithridatic war.

 

This mountain is the highest in that part of Anatolia (maybe in Anatolia altogether). There's a reference in Strabo, (though he calls it Mt Agaios, so when you search look for both spellings). It's 'the highest of mountains whose peak is constantly covered with snow ...given good visibility, anyone who climbs this mountain - and not many do- are supposed to see both seas, the Pontus and the Issikos'.

 

There's a coin of Trajan which depicts the thing.

 

You might also like to note that the nearest town, Eusebeia, was a cult centre both in Hellenistic times and in the Christian era (St Basil). Also, according to my guide book on Asia Minor (I've done a lot of military research on the region), the mountain is a strato-volcano which blew its lid in the third century, which probably led to it being regarded with a certain amount of respect.

[Klingan]

I am wondering if the name of this mountain is somehow connected (one way or the other) to the Macedonian king Argaeus?