COINS OF PERGA IN PAMPHYLIA.
THREE ARTEMIS MEDALS.
Among the Semites the oldest bethels, or houses of God, were pillars of stone. We need not assume that they were gods or goddesses, for judging from Biblical information they may be interpreted as monuments marking a holy place, i. e., a spot where a deity had revealed himself in some way.
The primitive form of a bethel,[39] or as the Greeks transcribed the Phenician term, βαίτυλος, has often been represented on coins. Sometimes two columns are placed, one on each side, and the stone is frequently accompanied with the symbols of the goddess, fruit and eggs; sometimes doves perch on the sanctuary; sometimes the pillar is covered with a temple roof. We know one instance in which it bears the symbol of a Latin cross and gradually it assumes in a coarse style the features of a woman. Such is the beginning of the manufacture of idols which at first are extremely stiff and assume only gradually—indeed very slowly—an artistic shape.
| COIN OF ANTIOCHUS EUERGETES. | ISTAR ON A COIN OF TARSUS. |
| COIN OF EMESA. | COIN OF IASOS CARIA. |