Orophernes. Lessons from a Golden Coin

C. P. Cavafy’s “Orophernes” (1904, 1916, 1923) is a complex and elusive poem in which impressions formed by the viewing of a rare Hellenistic coin are contrasted to a poetic narrative of an obscure king’s life, leading to ruminations on the value of art, history and beauty. The poem has been described as historical (Dallas, 1987, p. 67), erotic (Savidis, 1985, p. 232; Cavafy, 1984), and political (Savidis, 1985, p. 330) as well as “self-referential” or a poem on poetics (Jusdanis, 1987, p. 110; Savidis, 1985, p. 310). It is also one of the most famous numismatic poems in world literature. As P. Roilos aptly observes, the coin at the poem’s center is handled “both as an historical ‘document’ and an aesthetic ‘monument.’ ‘Orophernes’ explores the fluid boundaries between these two notional and epistemological categories by foregrounding the aesthetic merit of the ‘document’ while problematizing the reconstructive historical potential of the monument” (Roilos, 2009, p. 191). The poem’s first version, which has been lost or destroyed, was written in 1904; the poem first appeared in print in 1916. Here it is quoted in its final form: