Arising out of Indo-European creation myths, Zeus burst into the Greek world with his thunderbolt, sceptre and eagle as the superlative god, the one who controls the order of the Universe.
On the obverse of this coin, the classical image of a bearded Zeus, wearing a diadem, is conflated with the ram horns of the Egyptian sky god Ammon. The reverse shows the eagle, the Homeric symbol for Zeus, standing on a thunderbolt along with a lotus flower.
By choosing to depict Zeus on his coins, the Hellenistic ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy VI Philometor, aligned himself with strong and just government: the appearance of Zeus, the guardian of law and justice, suggests that those attributes are associated with Ptolemy’s rule and that his rule is legitimised by none other than Zeus himself.
