Elena Santagati
ELECTRUM, Volume 30, 2023, pp. 55-74
https://doi.org/10.4467/20800909EL.23.003.17320This paper aims to investigate the reasons why, since the reign of Philip II, the “national” Zeus, venerated on Olympus and Dion and characterized by the oak crown, was abandoned in favor of the Olympian Zeus of Elis, characterized by the olive/oleaster wreath. We notice that while the members of the royal family display, in life and death, an oak wreath as an insignia of their kingship, and at the same time also as a symbol of their highest divinity, the kings themselves issue the image of the panhellenic god with an olive/laurel wreath on their coins.