Hermaeus and Kalliope with Hypostratos on horseback

Kalliope (Ancient Greek: Καλλιόπη) was an Indo-Greek queen and wife of Hermaeus, who was a Western Indo-Greek king of the Eucratid Dynasty. Hermaeus ruled the territory of Paropamisade in the Hindu-Kush region, with his capital in Alexandria of the Caucasus (near today's Kabul, Afghanistan). Their reign dates from the first quarter of the first century BC.[1]

Coinage

Kalliope and Hermaeus jointly issued silver, Indian-Standard Drachms. The obverse featured diademed and draped busts of them both.[2] The reverse shows the king on a prancing horse, which is characteristic motif of the contemporary Greek kings in the eastern Punjab such as Hippostratos. It has been suggested that the coin represented a marital alliance between the two dynastic lines.[3] Coins have been found in Peshawar and near Mohmand.[4] They were also part of the assemblage of the Sarai Saleh hoard and 928 were found in the first Mir Zakah deposit.[5] Some of these coins are found overstruck with dies in the name of Artemidoros.[6][5] The depiction of the wife on Indo-Greek coins is otherwise not common, so that it can be assumed that Calliope played a special role (perhaps in the marriage policy of the Indo-Greek states).[3][7]

Historiography

Whilst Kalliope has been referred to as Hermaeus' wife by W W Tarn and A K Narain, S K Dikshit suggested that Kalliope appeared older in her portrait and as such perhaps was Hermaeus' mother.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Senior, “The Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian king sequences in the second and first centuries BC”, ONS 2004 Supplement.
  2. ↑ Medals, British Museum Department of Coins and; Gardner, Percy (1886). The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum. order of the Trustees. ISBN 978-0-900834-52-3.
  3. 1 2 Tarn, W. W. (1922). The Greeks In Bactria And India Ed. 1st. p. 337.
  4. ↑ Narain, A. K. (1957). Indo-Greeks. p. 162.
  5. 1 2 Bopearachchi, Osmund. "RECENT DISCOVERIES OF COIN HOARDS FROM CENTRAL ASIA AND PAKISTAN NEW NUMISMATIC EVIDENCE ON THE PRE-KUSHAN HISTORY OF THE SILK ROAD." Proceedings of the Symposium on Ancient Coins and the Culture of the Silk Road. 2011.
  6. ↑ Foundation, Encyclopaedia Iranica. "INDO-SCYTHIAN DYNASTY". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2021-08-17.
  7. ↑ Mohan, Mehta Vasishtha Dev (1974). The North-west India of the Second Century B.C. Indological Research Institute.
  8. ↑ Dikshit, S. K. (1952). "THE PROBLEM OF THE KUṢᾹṆAS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE VIKRAMA SAṀVAT". Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute. 33 (1/4): 114–170. ISSN 0378-1143. JSTOR 41784638.
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