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With the exception of Kamarina. On the coins of Kamarina (nos. 1085-1094) we find a nymph in
intimate association with a swan. The animal carries the young, lightly dressed woman up, over waves.
The way the swan carries the city nymph is clearly borrowed from depictions of Aphrodite, which will
be discussed below.

According to the coins, Panormos (nos. 10 7f.) seems to have been a place of refuge for wintering
swans, which of course also attributed great importance to Apollo. In Klazomenai (nos. 1247-1275),
beyond the close connection with Apollo, the possibility of a play on words opened up: the verb klázô
denotes loud birdsong (usually of starlings and jackdaws) and perhaps also served to make plausible
the peculiar name of the city in a charming narrative in which swan song played a role. The coins of
Klazomenai collected by our swan friend offer a rarely seen variety of swan representations, among
which the rare flying swans on the already rare tetradrachms stand out.
In the case of Leukai (nos. 1276-1283), the appearance of the swan on the coins is a sign of the
conquest of the city by the Klazomenians. But also in this city there was an important sanctuary of
Apollo. And, of course, one will hardly have failed to refer the λευκός (white) resonating in the place
name as an allusion to the color of the swans. In contrast, the swan-necked triskelides on the Lycian
coins (nos. 1320-1324) remain completely enigmatic, as do so many coin designs of this landscape.
In the Cilician Mallos, on the other hand (nos. 1330-1362), some of the aforementioned elements
that distinguished a „swan city“ came together: The location on a river delta, in this case that of Pyra-
mos, and a cult of Apollo, who was of particular importance to the Mallotes as the father of their city
founder and seer Amphilochos. If one wishes to explain the occurrence of the swan on Mallot coins,
however, it must be remembered that Aphrodite is much more prominently represented on coins
at this time and is also closely related to swans. The poet Sappho describes Aphrodite being carried
through the air by swans. We may imagine this as similar to what the coins of Kamarina show.
Finally, it is not until Roman times that we encounter what is probably the most famous swan story.
Coins of Nicomedia show a swan nestling at the garment of a woman (nos. 15 2f.). The image can
only be interpreted as an allusion to Leda and the swan (Zeus). The city seems to want to connect to
the Spartan myth.
In other cities, the attractive bird remains an epithet - usually the rarest of the mint series: Allifai (no.
1010), Neapolis (no. 1017), Argos (nos. 1188-11 1), Delos (no. 11 3).

In the later Middle Ages, it is more tangible as a literary motif, for example in the „Golden Forge“
of Conrad of Würzburg, where the „swan song“ is related to the lament of the dying Christ on the
cross: „It is said that the swan sings when he is to die, his son does the same“. In the Reformation, of
course, we encounter the swan as the symbol of Martin Luther, which goes back to a statement by the
pre-Reformer Jan Hus (Hus=Czech goose). He is said to have said, before he was burned, „Today you
roast a goose, but from the ashes a swan will rise.“ Luther explicitly referred to this statement. In these
contexts, it is not surprising that princes at all times had the swan in or on their coat of arms or that
the swan was used as a subtle confession as an epithet.

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