Ambiguous Deities On Celtic Gold

Gender identity is in the news again, this time in the not so public pages of Iron Age numismatics. It is being suggested that the image of the god Apollo on a Celtic coin was deliberately changed to make him look more like a goddess, or at least gender neutral.

The coin is a Broad Flan gold stater, struck in the late 2nd century B.C. by the Bellovaci of Picardy, northern France, and due to be sold by Chris Rudd in Norwich, 14 May 2023. Director Elizabeth Cottam says: “In 1993 we thought Apollo looked so effeminate on the coin we changed its name to ‘Gallo-Belgic Goddess’. Since then, we’ve taken a more nuanced view of his long hair and long hairpin and no longer refer to him as a goddess.”

Dr Daphne Nash Briggs, author of Coinage in the Celtic World (Seaby 1987, Spink 2004), says: “You can’t sex the deity on this stater. It’s the sun, androgynous, both male and female. It’s a he-she deity, deliberately designed to look ambiguous.”