Городские богини на древнегреческих монетах

In the society organized into poleis, where every city was an independent political unit, the figure of a local goddess patronizing the city acquired particular importance. Such goddess, apart from being the symbol of the city, protected it and provided for its prosperity. As a result, the Greeks started to show patron-goddesses on their coins.

More than two hundred and thirty cities, at different times, are known to have put the images of city goddesses on local coins. These images, more numerous than those of any other divinity, present, however, little variety.

A typical image of a city goddess is the head of a goddess on the coin from Heliopolis of Galatia. It shows a stately dame wearing a crown in the shape of a city wall. The wall was the symbol of the city, and it is this wall that the goddess was believed to protect. The head of the goddess is veiled. In Ancient Greece the veil, apart from being, in some cases, symbolic of grief (Demeter in search for her abducted daughter was always shown as veiled), bore witness to the high stature of a woman who was wearing it, as well as of her advanced age. Shown behind the head of the goddess are here typical attributes: a palm branch, the symbol of victory, and a cornucopia, the symbol of wealth, that were also what the goddess was supposed to grant to her worshippers.