Kalliope (queen)

Kalliope (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]

Hermaeus and Kalliope with Hypostratos on horseback

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. Tarn, W. W. (1922). The Greeks In Bactria And India Ed. 1st. p. 337.
  4. Narain, A. K. (1957). Indo-Greeks. p. 162.
  5. 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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