ANTIOCHUS VIII SILVER TETRADRACHM – AKE PTOLEMAIS ISUE – CHOICE XF STAR NGC GRADED GREEK SELEUCID KINGDOM COIN (Inv. 20353)

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20353. SELEUCID KINGDOM. ANTIOCHUS VIII, 125–96 BC.
Silver Tetradrachm, 16.29 g, 30 mm. Issue of Ake Ptolemais, ca. 121/0–113 BC.
Obv. Diademed head of Antiochus VIII right. Rev. BAΣIΛEΩΣ ANTIOXOY EΠIΦANOYΣ, Zeus Uranius standing left with crescent above his head, holding star in outstretched right hand and scepter in the left, ΔAP control monogram in left field, all within laurel wreath.
SC 2336.2a; HGC 9, 1197h.
NGC graded CHOICE XF STAR, Surface 4/5, Strike 5/5, attractive glossy surface, with rich golden iridescent highlights, extremely attractive.

Zeus became a standard subject for the reverse of Seleucid coins in the last decades of the second and the early decades of the first century BC. He is most commonly shown seated on a throne, but on the early issues of Antiochus VIII, he appears with a crescent moon above his head and holding a star in his hand to identify him as Zeus Uranius (“of the Heavens”). It has been suggested that this “heavenly Zeus” may reflect the influence of native Semitic peoples in the late Seleucid Kingdom, and that this god is really a Greek version of Ba’al (“Lord”), who was worshipped in various forms and by various peoples on the mountaintops of Syria and the Southern Levant for centuries before the coming of the Greeks and Macedonians.