Zoomorphic, Theriomorphic and Tetramorphic Symbols on Coins – part two

Sa？etak The first part of this article (published in the last number of Numizmati？ke vijesti no. 70/2017) described the symbolical representation of the eagle in Antiquity, and in the second part the author continues the description through the early and high Middle Ages. This was a time when the positive features of the eagle, honored in Antiquity, were taken over and ennobled by Christianity, which gave the bird characteristics of spirituality. The author explains the complexity of the early symbolism of the two-headed eagle, which probably originated in Mesopotamia and which is even today not completely clear to us. Later presentations of the two-headed eagle, especially after the Byzantine Empire, almost exclusively had a heraldic meaning. The author shows and explains symbolical representations of the hawk, peacock, dove (or pigeon), raven (or black crow) and beings similar to birds, which we can see on coins