Thedanake ordanace (Greek:δανάκη) was a smallsilver coin of thePersian Empire (Old Persiandânake), equivalent to the Greekobol and circulated among theeastern Greeks. Later it was used by the Greeks in other metals.[1] The 2nd-century AD grammarianJulius Pollux gives the name asdanikê ordanakê ordanikon and says that it was a Persian coin,[2] but by Pollux's time this was ananachronism.[3]
The term as used byarchaeologists is vague in regard todenomination. A single coin buried with the dead and made of silver orgold is often referred to as adanake and presumed to be a form ofCharon's obol.Numismatists have also found thedanake an elusive coin to identify, speculating that the Greeks used the term loosely for ademonetized coin of foreign origin.[4]
In Persia, thedanake was originally a unit of weight for bulk silver, representing one-eighth of ashekel (1.05 gm).[5] This use of the word became obsolete. In theHellenistic period and later it designated the silverAttic obol, which originally represented the sixth part of adrachma; inNew Persiandâng means "one sixth".[3]
Thedanake is one of the coins that served as the so-called Charon's obol, which was placed on or in a dead person's mouth to pay theferryman who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead.[6] Charon's obol is sometimes specifically called anaulum (Greekναῦλον, "boat fare").[7] The Christian-eralexicographerHesychius gives "the obol for the dead" as one of the meanings ofδανάκη,[8] and theSuda defines thedanake as a coin traditionally buried with the dead for paying the ferryman to cross theAcheron.[9] In literary sources, the smallness of thedenomination was taken as a reminder that death is an equalizer of rich and poor.[10]
Although Charon's obol is usually regarded asHellenic, archaeology indicates that the rite of placing of a coin in the mouth of the deceased was practiced also duringParthian and evenSasanian times in the region that is present-dayIran. The coin, however, was customarily a drachma.[11] In his entry on theδανάκη, Hesychius implies that the coin was mentioned byHeracleides of Cyme in his lost workPersica around 350 BC, placing its use (perhaps erroneously) in theAchaemenid period.[12]
Golddanakes are frequently found in graves. In aThessalian burial of the 4th century BC, a golddanake had been placed on the lips of a woman, presumed from her religious paraphernalia to be an initiate into theOrphic orDionysiacmysteries. The coin was stamped with aGorgon's head.[13]
In archaeological investigations of Greece since the mid-1990s,danakes have tended to be found in cemeteries. At anecropolis at Hephaisteia onLemnos, exploration of which began in 1995, the many finds in unlooted graves included a golddanake.[14] In the late 1990s, a cemetery in northwest Greece yielded objects dating from the mid-4th to the early 3rd centuries BC, includingoinochoai,unguentaria, a wreath with thin gold leaves (sometimes associated withOrphicreligion), a golddanake, and a silver obol with a wingedPegasus.[15] A golddanake ofGeta dating 199–200 A.D. was among objects – including potsherds, animal bones and shells, and bronze coins – retrieved from awell in the center of a cemetery in centralMacedonia. The well was surrounded by a paved floor and housed by a stone structure. It is thought that the deposition followed funerary meals and offerings to the dead.[16]
In investigations reported 2004–2005, a single golddanake was found along with bronze coins andglassware in anAchaian cemetery where both adults and children had been buried in wooden coffins.[17] Graves inEuboia yieldedpottery andglassware, small bone tools, ironstrigils, and gold jewelry anddanakes.[18] InEpiros, graves and funerary chests yielded golddanakes along withkantharoi,lamps,pyxides, figurines, gold rings, gold oak leaves, ironstrigils, abone flute, fragments of funerarystelae and amarble head of a young man. The items dated from the 4th to the 2nd century BC. Excavations at aHellenistic cemetery in the same area uncovered five golddanakes along with seventeen perfume flasks,[19] twenty-sixvessels, a bronzestrigil, an ironspearhead,terracotta figurines and a funerarypelike withgorgoneia at the base of the handles.[20]
The word "danake" continued in use into theMiddle Ages asArabicdaneq,Persiantransl. fas – transl. dangh ortrmmdaneh, and post-classicalSanskrit\tanka.[21] The name has been connected to the silvertangka of India, which had the same weight.[22]
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