The obol ( grc-gre, , ''obolos'', also
ὀβελός (''obelós''),
ὀβελλός (''obellós''),
ὀδελός (''odelós'').
"nail, metal spit"; la, obolus) was a form of ancient Greek currency and weight.
Currency
Obols were used from early times. According to
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
they were originally spits of
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
or
bronze traded by weight, while six obols make a
drachma
The drachma ( el, δραχμή , ; pl. ''drachmae'' or ''drachmas'') was the currency used in Greece during several periods in its history:
# An ancient Greek currency unit issued by many Greek city states during a period of ten centuries, fr ...
or a handful, since that was as many as the hand could grasp.
Heraklides of Pontus (died ca. 310 BC) is cited as having mentioned the obols of Heraion and also gives the etymology of ''obolos'' (the name of the coin) from ''obelos'' (the word for "spit, spike, nail"). Similarly, the historian
Ephorus
Ephorus of Cyme (; grc-gre, Ἔφορος ὁ Κυμαῖος, ''Ephoros ho Kymaios''; c. 400330 BC) was an ancient Greek historian known for his universal history.
Biography
Information on his biography is limited. He was born in Cyme, A ...
in his equally lost work ''On Inventions'' (mid 4th century BC) is said to have mentioned the obols of Heraion.
Excavations at
Argos
Argos most often refers to:
* Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece
** Ancient Argos, the ancient city
* Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Argos or ARGOS may also refer to:
Businesses
...
discovered several dozen of these early obols, dated well before 800 BC; they are now displayed at the
Numismatic Museum of Athens
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.
Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...
. Archaeologists today describe the iron spits as "utensil-money" since excavated hoards indicate that during the
Late Geometric period they were exchanged in handfuls (drachmae) of six spits, they were not used for manufacturing artifacts as metallurgical analyses suggest, but they were most likely used as token-money.
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...
states the
Sparta
Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...
ns had an iron obol of four coppers. They retained the cumbersome and impractical bars rather than proper coins to discourage the pursuit of wealth.
![Athens 510-490 BC Obol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Athens_510-490_BC_Obol.jpg)
In Classical
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, obols were traded as
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
coin
A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...
s. Six obols made up the drachma. There were also coins worth two obols ("diobol") and three obols ("triobol"). By the fifth century BC, variations on obols expanded to include coins worth one and one-half ("trihemiobol") obols and half obols ("hemiobol"). The fourth century BC diversified further with some minted obols worth as little as one-eighth obol, equivalent to a single copper.
Each obol was divisible into eight "
coppers" (, ''khalkoí''). In some other cities the obol was instead divided into twelve coppers. During this era, an obol purchased a
kantharos
A ''kantharos'' ( grc, κάνθαρος) or cantharus is a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, probably originates in metalwork. In i ...
and chous () of
wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
. Three obols was a standard rate for prostitutes. In the fourth century BC, bronze obols were first minted, which were generally larger due to bronze being a less precious metal than silver, thus needing a larger amount to produce an equivalent coin. This larger size made bronze coins fairly popular, as their small, silver predecessors were much easier to lose track of.
Obols had a variety of designs stamped into them based on the region in which they were produced. Athenian obols were typically emblazoned with the face of Athena on one side, and an owl on the reverse. Other regions in Greece had various designs, but the Athenian design was popular enough that the majority of obols discovered by archaeologists today bear the owl design.
Diobols and triobols were differentiated from standard obols through slight variations to the owl design, changing the way the bird faced and how its wings were positioned for easily identifiable currency.
Funerary use
The deceased were buried with an obol placed in the mouth of the corpse, so that—once a deceased's shade reached
Hades—they would be able to pay
Charon for passage across the river
Acheron
The Acheron (; grc, Ἀχέρων ''Acheron'' or Ἀχερούσιος ''Acherousios''; ell, Αχέροντας ''Acherontas'') is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. It is long, and its drainage area is . Its source is ...
or
Styx. Legend had it that those without enough wealth or whose friends refused to follow proper burial rites were forced to wander the banks of the river for one hundred years until they were allowed to cross it.
Weight
The obol or obolus was also a measurement of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
,
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
, and
apothecaries' weight
In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force acting on the object due to gravity.
Some standard textbooks define weight as a vector quantity, the gravitational force acting on the object. Others define weight as a scalar qua ...
.
In ancient Greece, it was generally reckoned as drachma ( ). Under Roman rule, it was defined as
Roman ounce
The (plural: ) was a Roman unit of length, weight, and volume. It survived as the Byzantine liquid ounce ( grc-gre, οὐγγία, ''oungía'') and the origin of the English inch, ounce, and fluid ounce.
The Roman inch was equal to of a Ro ...
or about . The
apothecaries' system also reckoned the obol or obolus as
ounce
The ounce () is any of several different units of mass, weight or volume and is derived almost unchanged from the , an Ancient Roman unit of measurement.
The avoirdupois ounce (exactly ) is avoirdupois pound; this is the United States customa ...
or
scruple. While 0.72 grams was the weight of a standard Greek obol, the actual amount of silver that went into making the currency could vary from region to region. Obols in Athens were typically near the 0.72-gram standard, while Corinth was documented having 0.42-gram obols.
Literary use
The obolus, along with the mirror, was a symbol of new schismatic heretics in the short story "
The Theologians" by Argentine author
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
.
In the story's discussion of the circularity of time, eternity, and the transmigration of the soul through several bodies the author uses a quotation of Luke 12:59, mistranslated as "no one will be released from prison until he has paid the last obolus"
since Luke calls the coin a
lepton (a somewhat smaller denomination) rather than an obolus.
See also
* The currency of the
United States of the Ionian Islands
The United States of the Ionian Islands ( el, Ἡνωμένον Κράτος τῶν Ἰονίων Νήσων, Inoménon-Krátos ton Ioníon Níson, United State of the Ionian Islands; it, Stati Uniti delle Isole Ionie) was a Greek state and a ...
, called the
obol
* The British
halfpenny, also formerly known as the obol
[Albert Peel, ''Seconde parte of a register: being a calendar of manuscripts under that title'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 175, note.]
*
Obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...
s (, ''obelískoi''), which also derived from the bars or the critical mark
References
* 2. Vol. I of the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1914 Plutarch, Lycurgus, 9
External links
* A History of Measures
The Use of ObeliskoiHow we came to know about the iron obols, the antecedents of the drachma
{{Ancient Greek coinage
Ancient Greek units of measurement
Coins of ancient Greece
Numismatics