The “Hand Puppet” Glycon

CNG 103, Lot: 569. Estimate $500. Sold for $3000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BITHYNIA, Nicomedia. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (27mm, 12.12 g, 1h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / The serpent Glycon coiled to left, with human head with long hair. RG 227; BMC 48 var. (Glycon coiled to right). Good VF, brown surfaces. Rare and exceptional reverse type.

This highly interesting coin depicts the deity Glycon, whose cult was the subject of Lucian of Samosata’s scathing Alexander the False Prophet. Lucian (ca. AD 125-after 180) describes the cult as a fraud created by a medicine man named Alexander (ca. AD 105-170). According to the author, Alexander decided there was a fortune to be made divining the future, so he hatched a plan: the swindler planted a snake within the foundations of a new temple to Asclepius at Abonuteichus in Paphlagonia, and convinced the superstitious residents that its appearance fulfilled a prophecy that Asclepius would come to earth in the form of a serpent by the name of Glycon. Alexander is said to have outfitted the large serpent with a puppet head – the mouth of which he would move by pulling strings – that was topped with a long, blonde wig, a description that fits well with the tressed snake seen on our coin. We are told that worshippers of Glycon could visit the serpent and have their fortunes read…for a hefty sum paid to the puppet-master Alexander.

Despite Lucian’s scandalous accusations, the cult of Glycon spread dramatically during the 2nd century. By the time of Caracalla, we have evidence that Glycon was worshipped from the Danube to the eastern limits of the empire.