ABYDOS in TROAS 320BC Apollo Eagle Authentic Original Ancient Greek Coin i47743

Item: i47743

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of
Abydos
in
Troas

Bronze 10mm (1.21 grams) Struck circa 320-200 B.C.

Laureate head of Apollo right.
ABY, Eagle standing left with closed wings.

Abydos was a Milesian colony on the shores of the
Hellespont, opposite Sestos.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In
Greek
and
Roman mythology
,
Apollo,
is one of the most important and diverse of the
Olympian deities
. The ideal of the
kouros
(a beardless youth), Apollo has been
variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy;
archery
; medicine and healing; music, poetry,
and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of

Zeus and Leto
, and has a
twin
sister, the chaste huntress
Artemis
. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced
Etruscan mythology
as Apulu. Apollo was
worshiped in both
ancient Greek
and
Roman religion
, as well as in the modern
Greco
–Roman
Neopaganism
.

As the patron of Delphi
(Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an
oracular
god — the prophetic deity of the
Delphic Oracle
. Medicine and healing were
associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his
son Asclepius
, yet Apollo was also seen as a god
who could bring ill-health and deadly
plague
as well as one who had the ability to
cure. Amongst the god’s custodial charges, Apollo became associated with
dominion over
colonists
, and as the patron defender of herds
and flocks. As the leader of the

Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo
functioned as the patron god of music and
poetry
.
Hermes
created the

lyre for him, and the instrument became a common
attribute
of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were
called paeans
.

In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo
Helios he became identified among Greeks with
Helios
,
god of the sun
, and his sister Artemis
similarly equated with
Selene
,
goddess of the moon
. In Latin texts, on the
other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of
Apollo with
Sol
among the
Augustan poets
of the first century, not even
in the conjurations of
Aeneas
and
Latinus
in
Aeneid
XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol
remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third
century CE.

Abydos (Greek: Άβυδος), an ancient city of

Mysia
, in

Asia Minor

, situated at Nara Burnu or

Nagara Point

on the best harbor on the Asiatic shore of the

Hellespont
.

Across Abydos lies

Sestus

on the European side marking the shortest point in the

Dardanelles

, scarcely a mile broad. The strategic site has been a prohibited

zone in the twentieth century.

Hero and Leander

‘s story was been near Abydos.

Abydos was first mentioned in the catalogue of Trojan allies (Iliad

ii.836). It probably was a

Thracian
town,

as Strabo
has

it, but was afterwards colonized by

Milesians
,

with the consent of

Gyges, king of Lydia

, around 700 BC. It was occupied by the Persians in

514 BC

, and Darius

burnt it in

512

. Here

Xerxes

built two bridges of boats and crossed the strait in

480 BC
when he

invaded Greece

.

Abydos thereafter became a member of the

Delian League

, until it revolted from Athenian rule in

411 BC
.^[2]

It allied itself to

History of Sparta

, until

394 BC
; King

Agesilaus

of Sparta crossed here while returning to Greece. Abydos then passed under

Achaemenid

rule, until

334 BC
.

Alexander the Great

threw a spear to Abydos while crossing the strait and

claimed Asia as his own.

Abydos is celebrated for the vigorous resistance it made against

Philip V of Macedon

in

200 BC
,^[3]

and is famed in myth as the home of

Leander

. It minted coins from the early fifth century BC to the mid-third

century AD.

The town remained until late Byzantine times an important toll and customs

station of the Hellespont, its importance thereafter being transferred to the

Dardanelles

, after the building of the “Old Castles” by Sultan

Mehmet II

(c. 1456).