Zeus on Dora’s Coins

Abstract

Dora’s religious coin iconography focuses mainly on two figures: a female figure whose
characteristics make her easily recognizable as Tyche/Fortuna, and a male portrait whose
identification is not as straightforward. The head shows the markings of a mature Olympian
god who recalls the features of both Zeus and Poseidon but presents none of these two gods’
attributes. The god has conventionally been identified with ‘Doros, son of Poseidon;’ we
suggest, however, that the now familiar longhaired, long-bearded man portrayed on Dora’s
coins is Zeus and propose calling him ‘Zeus Doros,’ i.e., Zeus from Dora.