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Greek city of Dioskourias in Kolchis
Bronze 15mm (4.52 grams) Struck under Mithradates VI the Great circa 105-90 B.C.
Reference: Sear 3629; HGC 7, 205-206; SNG Black Sea 1021-1023; SNG Stancomb 638; SNG Copenhagen 102-3
Two caps (pilei) of the Dioscuri, each with a star above.
Thyrsos; ΔΙ-OΣ / KOY-PIA / Δ-OΣ across field.
In the north of Kolchis, Dioskourias was a Milesian foundation, and provided a great marketplace for the peoples of the surrounding area. The mythology behind the name came from a supposed visit of Castor and Pollux to the city. There was a temple to the Dioscuri and Demeter in the city.
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 Gemini is one of the constellations of the zodiac. It was one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century AD astronomer Ptolemy and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. Its name is Latin for “twins,” and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology. Its symbol is  (Unicode ♊).
In Greek and Roman mythology, Pollux and Castor or Polydeuces were twin brothers, together known as the Dioskouri. Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.
In Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini or Castores. When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini. The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo’s fire, and were also associated with horsemanship.
They are sometimes called the Tyndaridae or Tyndarids, later seen as a reference to their father and stepfather Tyndareus.
 The pileus (Greek πῖλος – pilos, also pilleus or pilleum in Latin) was a brimless, felt cap worn in Ancient Greece and surrounding regions, later also introduced in Ancient Rome. The Greek πιλίδιον (pilidion) and Latin pilleolus were smaller versions, similar to a skullcap.
The pileus was especially associated with the manumission of slaves. who wore it upon their liberation. It became emblematic of liberty and freedom from bondage. During the classic revival of the 18th and 19th centuries it was widely confused with the Phrygian cap which, in turn, appeared frequently on statuary and heraldic devices as a “liberty cap.”
| Mithridates VI |
| King of Kings |
Mithridates VI from the Musée du Louvre
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| Reign |
120–63 BC |
| Successor |
Pharnaces II of Pontus |
| Father |
Mithridates V of Pontus |
| Mother |
Laodice VI |
Mithridates VI or Mithradates VI (Greek: Μιθραδάτης), from Old Persian Mithradatha, “gift of Mithra“; 134–63 BC, also known as Mithradates the Great (Megas) and Eupator Dionysius, was king of Pontus and Armenia Minor in northern Anatolia (now Turkey) from about 120–63 BC. Mithridates is remembered as one of the Roman Republic’s most formidable and successful enemies, who engaged three of the prominent generals from the late Roman Republic in the Mithridatic Wars: Lucius Cornelius Sulla, Lucullus and Pompey. He was also the greatest ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus.
  A thyrsus or thyrsos was a wand or staff of giant fennel (Ferula communis) covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone.
Symbolism
The thyrsus, associated with Dionysus (or Bacchus) and his followers, the Satyrs and Maenads, is a symbol of prosperity, fertility, hedonism, and pleasure/enjoyment in general. It has been suggested that this was specifically a fertility phallus, with the fennel representing the shaft of the penis and the pine cone representing the “seed” issuing forth. The thyrsus was tossed in the Bacchic dance:
Pentheus: The thyrsus— in my right hand shall I hold it?
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- Or thus am I more like a Bacchanal?
Dionysus: In thy right hand, and with thy right foot raise it”.
Sometimes the thyrsus was displayed in conjunction with a kantharos wine cup, another symbol of Dionysus, forming a male-and-female combination like that of the royal scepter and orb.
Use
In Greek religion, the staff was carried by the votaries of Dionysus. Euripides wrote that honey dripped from the thyrsos staves that the Bacchic maenads carried. The thyrsus was a sacred instrument at religious rituals and fêtes.
The fabulous history of Bacchus relates that he converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers into dangerous weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves. Hence his thyrsus is called “a spear enveloped in vine-leaves”, and its point was thought to incite to madness.
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