Drachma of Alexander the Great from Miletus

A coin struck during the lifetime of Alexander the Great in Miletus, with Heracles on the front and Zeus on the back. It is often difficult to distinguish between coins struck during Alexander’s lifetime and coins struck by his successors after his death in an effort to strengthen their position as rulers of their new kingdoms. The Miletus series is one of the few coins likely to have been struck during Alexander’s lifetime.

The figures depicted on the coin are strongly linked to the legend formed and built around Alexander. Even during Alexander’s reign, he was said to be the son of Zeus. Later, after Alexander’s death, this belief spread, and the Greek biographer Plutarch, among others, wrote about Alexander’s divine roots. It is also believed that, after conquering Egypt, Alexander himself said that Zeus-Ammon was his father. It is possible that this was a way of creating a picture of a new ruler suited to the local beliefs, for kingship was strongly associated with divinity in Egypt. Later on, this method was also used by Ptolemy, who became King of Egypt after Alexander’s death. On the other hand, the story of the divinity of Alexander was well-known elsewhere in the Mediterranean, and kings descended from gods were not an alien concept to the Greeks either. Heracles was an important part of the mythical history of the Argead dynasty, who, according to their own words, were descended from Caranus, a descendant of Heracles. In addition, Alexander himself was compared to Heracles in ancient sources. One of these similarities was also that both of them were sons of Zeus, at least according to the legends.