Tetradrachm from Byblos

Silver Tetradrachm from Byblos, Phonecia, apparently, minted during the reign of Adramelek, 315 BC-...and currently in the British Museum...

A hippocampus swims below a Phonecian galley with 3 hoplites aboard...Why?

On the reverse, a lion attacks a bull...Why?

Well, the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean starts when wild horses start to mate, in Apr/May...And lasts until the end of the horse's mating season, Sep/Oct...This is why horse was the symbol of Eastern Mediterranean sea gods...They are basically an animal calendar marker for the sailing season...

I talked about this in my posts "Trojan horse" and "Three sacrifices"...

Some people will say that the horses associated with Eastern Mediterranean sea gods are actually seahorses.... 

Believe or not sea horses have the same mating season in Mediterranean...Making them the equivalent animal calendar marker for the sailing season to terrestrial horses...

I talked about this in my post "Seahorse ring"...

As for the lion killing bull, according to Hesiod

"Fifty days after the solstice, 

when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, 

is the right (best) time for men to go sailing". 

These are most common symbols of the seasons:

Ram (marks lambing of Eurasian wild sheep) - spring

Bull (marks calving of Eurasian wild cattle) - summer

Lion (marks mating of Eurasian lions) - autumn

Goat (marks mating of Eurasian wild goats) - winter

And on the coin, we see lion killing bull from behind...

Summer, which starts in Taurus (Apr/May) is followed by autumn, which starts in Leo (Jul/Aug)...

I talked about this in my posts "Mystery seal", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf", "Angra mainyu" and many others...

So...I hope the scenes depicted on Adramelek's coin make a bit more sense now...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...