Macedonia during the Interregnum 320BC Ancient Greek Coin Medusa Helmet i31800

Item: i31800

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek Macedonia during the Interregnum

Bronze 17mm (3.40 grams) Miletos or Mylasa Mint, circa 320 B.C.
Reference: Sear 6781 var.; Vecchi 14,413; Liampi, 193-217; Price, 2064

Macedonian shield with Gorgon’s head at center.

Macedonian helmet dividing B – A ; in lower field to left, double-axe; to right,

K.

Following Demetrios’ overthrow by Lysimachos and Pyrrhos,

Macedon underwent a decade during which no ruler was able to control the country

for any length of time. Most of the bronze coins issued in this period were

anonymous, though a few have the name of Pyrrhos in monogrammed form.

Lysimachos also struck some tetradrachms of his usual type at the Amphipolis mint.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In
Greek mythology
Medusa (Greek:
Μέδουσα (Médousa), “guardian, protectress”)
was a monster
, a
Gorgon
, generally described as having the face
of a hideous human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazing
directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone. Most sources describe her as
the daughter of Phorcys
and

Ceto, though the author
Hyginus
(Fabulae,
151) interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents.

Medusa was beheaded by the hero
Perseus
, who thereafter used her head as a
weapon until he gave it to the goddess
Athena
to place on her
shield
. In
classical antiquity
the image of the head of
Medusa appeared in the
evil-averting device
known as the
Gorgoneion
.

Medusa in
classical mythology

Perseus with the Head of Medusa
,
by
Benvenuto Cellini
, installed 1554

The three Gorgon
sisters—Medusa,
Stheno
, and
Euryale
—were all children of the ancient marine
deities Phorcys
(or Phorkys) and his sister

Ceto (or Keto),
chthonic
monsters from an
archaic
world. Their genealogy is shared with
other sisters, the Graeae
, as in
Aeschylus
‘s
Prometheus Bound
, which places both
trinities of sisters far off “on Kisthene’s dreadful plain”:

Near them their sisters three, the Gorgons, winged
With snakes for hair— hated of mortal man—

While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her
sisters as beings born of monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the
fifth century began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying. In
an ode written in 490 BC
Pindar
already speaks of “fair-cheeked Medusa”.

In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet

Ovid (Metamorphoses 4.770), Medusa was originally a
ravishingly beautiful maiden, “the jealous aspiration of many suitors,”
priestess in Athena’s temple, but when she was caught being raped by the “Lord
of the Sea” Poseidon
in
Athena
‘s temple, the enraged Athena transformed
Medusa’s beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that
the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. In Ovid’s telling, Perseus
describes Medusa’s punishment by Minerva (Athena) as just and well earned.

Death

In most versions of the story, she was
beheaded
by the
hero

Perseus
, who was sent to fetch her head by King
Polydectes
of Seriphus. In his conquest, he
received a mirrored shield from
Athena
, gold, winged sandals from
Hermes
, a sword from
Hephaestus
and Hades’ helm of invisibility.
Medusa was the only one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, so Perseus was able
to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received
from Athena. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by
Poseidon
. When Perseus beheaded her,
Pegasus
, a winged horse, and
Chrysaor
, a golden sword-wielding giant, sprang
from her body.

Head of Medusa, gate of the
Royal Palace of Turin

Jane Ellen Harrison
argues that “her potency
only begins when her head is severed, and that potency resides in the head; she
is in a word a mask with a body later appended… the basis of the
Gorgoneion
is a
cultus object
, a ritual mask misunderstood.”^[6]

In the Odyssey
xi,
Homer
does not specifically mention the
Gorgon
Medusa:

Lest for my daring
Persephone
the dread,
From Hades should send up an awful monster’s grisly head.

Harrison’s translation states “the Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the
terror out of the Gorgon.”According to

Ovid, in northwest Africa, Perseus flew past the
Titan

Atlas
, who stood holding the sky aloft, and
transformed him into stone when he tried to attack him. In a similar manner, the
corals
of the
Red Sea
were said to have been formed of
Medusa’s blood spilled onto
seaweed
when Perseus laid down the petrifying
head beside the shore during his short stay in
Ethiopia
where he saved and wed his future
wife, the lovely princess
Andromeda
. Furthermore the poisonous vipers of
the Sahara
, in the
Argonautica
4.1515, Ovid’s
Metamorphoses
4.770 and Lucan’s
Pharsalia
9.820, were said to have grown
from spilt drops of her blood. The blood of Medusa also spawned the
Amphisbaena
(a horned dragon-like creature with
a snake-headed tail).

Perseus then flew to Seriphos, where his mother was about to be forced into
marriage with the king. King Polydectes was turned into stone by the gaze of
Medusa’s head. Then Perseus gave the Gorgon’s head to Athena, who placed it on
her shield, the Aegis
.

Some classical references refer to three Gorgons; Harrison considered that
the tripling of Medusa into a trio of sisters was a secondary feature in the
myth:

The triple form is not primitive, it is merely an instance of a general
tendency… which makes of each woman goddess a trinity, which has given
us the Horae
, the
Charites
, the
Semnai
, and a host of other triple
groups. It is immediately obvious that the Gorgons are not really three
but one + two. The two unslain sisters are mere appendages due to
custom; the real Gorgon is Medusa.

Modern interpretations

Psychoanalysis

An
archaic
Medusa wearing the belt of
the intertwined snakes, a fertility symbol, as depicted on the west
pediment
of the
Artemis Temple in Corfu
, exhibited
at the
Archaeological Museum of Corfu

In 1940,
Sigmund Freud
‘s Das Medusenhaupt (Medusa’s
Head) was published posthumously. This article laid the framework
for his significant contribution to a body of criticism surrounding the monster.
Medusa is presented as “the supreme
talisman
who provides the image of
castration
— associated in the child’s mind
with the discovery of maternal sexuality — and its denial.”
Psychoanalysis
continue
archetypal literary criticism
to the present
day:
Beth Seelig
analyzes Medusa’s punishment from
the aspect of the crime of having been raped rather than having willingly
consented in Athena’s temple as an outcome of the goddess’ unresolved conflicts
with her own father, Zeus
.

Feminism

In the 20th century,
feminists
reassessed Medusa’s appearances in
literature and in modern culture, including the use of Medusa as a

logo by fashion company
Versace
. The name “Medusa” itself is often used
in ways not directly connected to the mythological figure but to suggest the
gorgon’s abilities or to
connote
malevolence; despite her origins as a
beauty, the name in common usage “came to mean monster.” The book Female
Rage: Unlocking Its Secrets, Claiming Its Power by Mary Valentis and Anne
Devane notes that “When we asked women what female rage looks like to them, it
was always Medusa, the snaky-haired monster of myth, who came to mind … In one
interview after another we were told that Medusa is ‘the most horrific woman in
the world’ … [though] none of the women we interviewed could remember the
details of the myth.”^[15]

Medusa mosaic (Roman period),
National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Medusa’s visage has since been adopted by many women as a symbol of female
rage; one of the first publications to express this idea was a 1978 issue of
Women: A Journal of Liberation. The cover featured the image of a Gorgon,
which the editors explained “can be a map to guide us through our terrors,
through the depths of our anger into the sources of our power as women.”^[15]
In a 1986 article for Women of Power magazine called “Ancient Gorgons: A
Face for Contemporary Women’s Rage,” Emily Erwin Culpepper wrote that “The
Amazon Gorgon face is female fury personified. The Gorgon/Medusa image has been
rapidly adopted by large numbers of feminists who recognize her as one face of
our own rage.”

In Ancient Greece
, the Gorgoneion (Greek:
Γοργόνειον) was originally a horror-creating
apotropaic

pendant
showing the
Gorgon‘s head. It was assimilated by the
Olympian deities

Zeus
and Athena:
both are said to have worn it as a protective
pendant.
It was assumed, among other godlike attributes, as a royal
aegis,
by rulers of the Hellenistic age, as shown, for instance, on the

Alexander Mosaic and the

Gonzaga Cameo.

Homer
refers to the Gorgon on four occasions, each time alluding to the head alone, as
if the creature had no body.
Jane Ellen Harrison
notes that “Medusa is a
head and nothing more…a mask
with a body later appended”. Up to the 5th
century BC, the head was depicted as particularly ugly, with a protruding
tongue,
boar

tusks, puffy cheeks, her eyeballs staring fixedly on the viewer and
the snakes twisting all around her.

The direct frontal stare, “seemingly looking out from its own iconographical
context and directly challenging the viewer”, was highly unusual in ancient
Greek art. In some instances a beard (probably standing for streaks of blood)
was appended to her chin, making her appear as an
orgiastic deity
akin to
Dionysus.

Gorgoneia that decorate the shields of warriors on mid-5th century Greek
vases are considerably less grotesque and menacing. By that time, the Gorgon had
lost her tusks and the snakes were rather stylized. The
Hellenistic
marble known as the

Medusa Rondanini illustrates the Gorgon’s eventual transformation
into a beautiful woman.

Macedonia or Macedon (from

Greek

: Μακεδονία,

Makedonía) was an ancient

kingdom
,

centered in the northeastern part of the

Greek peninsula

^[1],

bordered by

Epirus

to the west,

Paionia

to the north, the region of

Thrace
to the

east and Thessaly

to the south. For a brief period, after the conquests of

Alexander the Great

, it became the most powerful state in the world,

controlling a territory that included most of

Greece

and

Persia

, stretching as far as the

Indus

River
; at that time it inaugurated the

Hellenistic period

of

history
.

//

Name

The name Macedonia (Greek:

Μακεδονία,

Makedonía) is related to

the ancient Greek word μακεδνός (Makednos).

It is commonly explained as having originally meant ‘a tall one’ or

‘highlander’, possibly descriptive of the

people

.^[2][3]

The shorter English name variant Macedon developed in Middle English,

based on a borrowing from the French form of the name, Macédoine.^[4]

History

Early history and

legend

The lands around Aegae, the first Macedonian capital, were home to various

peoples. Macedonia was called Emathia (from king Emathion) and the city of Aiges

was called Edessa, the capital of fabled king Midas. According to legend,

Caranus, accompanied by a multitude of Greeks came to the area in search for a

new homeland

[5]

took Edessa and renamed it to Aegae. Subsequently, he expelled Midas and other

kings off the lands and he formed his new kingdom. According to Herodot, it was

Dorus, the son of Hellen who led his people to Histaeotis, whence they were

driven off by the Cadmeians into Pindus, where they settled as Macedonians.

Later, a branch would migrate further south to be called Dorians

[6]
.

It seems that the first

Macedonian

state emerged in the

8th

or early

7th

century BC
under the

Argead Dynasty

, who, according to legend, migrated to the region from the

Greek city
of

Argos
in

Peloponnesus (thus the name Argead).^[7]

It should be mentioned that the Macedonian tribe ruled by the Argeads, was

itself called Argead (which translates as “descended from Argos”).

The kingdom was situated in the fertile alluvial plain, watered by the rivers

Haliacmon

and Axius
, called

Lower Macedonia, north of the mountain

Olympus

. Around the time of

Alexander I of Macedon

, the Argead Macedonians started to expand into

Upper Macedonia

, lands inhabited by independent Macedonian tribes like the

Lyncestae and the Elmiotae and to the West, beyond Axius river, into

Eordaia

, Bottiaea

, Mygdonia

, and Almopia

-, regions settled by, among others, many Thracian tribes.^[8]

Near the modern city of

Veria
,

Perdiccas I

(or, more likely, his son,

Argaeus I

) built his capital, Aigai (modern

Vergina
).

After a brief period under

Persian

rule under

Darius Hystaspes

, the state regained its independence under King

Alexander II

(495–450

BC).

In the long

Peloponnesian War

Macedon was a secondary power that alternated in support

between Sparta and Athens.^[9]

Involvement in

the Greek world

Prior to the

4th

century BC
, the kingdom covered a region approximately corresponding to the

province of Macedonia

of modern

Greece

Amyntas III
(c. 393

–370 BC),

though it still retained strong contrasts between the cattle-rich coastal plain

and the fierce isolated tribal hinterland, allied to the king by marriage ties.

They controlled the passes through which barbarian invasions came from

Illyria
to

the north and northwest. It became increasingly

Atticised

during this period, though prominent

Athenians

appear to have regarded the Macedonians as uncouth.^[10]

Before the establishment of the

League of Corinth

, even though the Macedonians apparently spoke a dialect of

the Greek language and claimed proudly that they were Greeks, they were not

considered to fully share the

classical Greek

culture by many of the inhabitants of the southern city

states, because they did not share the

polis
based style

of government of the southerners.^[9]

Herodotus
,

being one of the foremost biographer in antiquity who lived in Greece at the

time when the Macedonian king

Alexander I

was in power, mentioned: “I happen to know, and I will

for the foot-race. He came in equal first”..^[11]

Over the 4th century Macedon became more politically involved with the

south-central city-states of

Ancient GreecePella

, resembling

Mycenaean

culture more than classic

Hellenic

city-states, and other archaic customs, like Philip’s multiple

wives in addition to his Epirote queen

Olympias
,

mother of Alexander.

Another archaic remnant was the very persistence of a

hereditary

monarchy

which wielded formidable – sometimes absolute – power, although

this was at times checked by the landed aristocracy, and often disturbed by

power struggles within the royal family itself. This contrasted sharply with the

Greek cultures further south, where the ubiquitous city-states mostly possessed

aristocratic or democratic institutions; the

de facto

monarchy of tyrants
,

in which heredity was usually more of an ambition rather than the accepted rule;

and the limited, predominantly military and sacerdotal, power of the twin

hereditary Spartan

kings. The same might have held true of

feudal

institutions like

serfdom
,

which may have persisted in Macedon well into historical times. Such

institutions were abolished by city-states well before Macedon’s rise (most

notably by the Athenian legislator

Solon
‘s famous

σεισάχθεια

laws)..

Amyntas had three sons; the first two,

Alexander II

and

Perdiccas III

reigned only briefly. Perdiccas III’s infant heir was deposed

by Amyntas’ third son,

Philip II of Macedon

, who made himself king and ushered in a period of

Macedonian dominance of Greece. Under Philip II, (359–336

BC), Macedon expanded into the territory of the

Paionians

,

Thracians
,

and Illyrians
.

Among other conquests, he annexed the regions of

Pelagonia

and Southern

Paionia

.^[12]]

Philip redesigned the

army of Macedon

adding a number of variations to the traditional

hoplite

hetairoi

, a well armoured heavy cavalry, and more light infantry, both

of which added greater flexibility and responsiveness to the force. He also

lengthened the spear and shrank the shield of the main infantry force,

increasing its offensive capabilities.

Philip began to rapidly expand the borders of his kingdom. He first

campaigned in the north against non-Greek peoples such as the

IllyriansAmphipolis
,

which controlled the way into

Thracee
and also

was near valuable silver mines. This region had been part of the

Athenian Empire

, and Athens still considered it as in their sphere. The

Athenians attempted to curb the growing power of Macedonia, but were limited by

the outbreak of the

Social War

. They could also do little to halt Philip when he turned his

armies south and took over most of

Thessaly
.

Control of Thessaly meant Philip was now closely involved in the politics of

central Greece. 356 BCE saw the outbreak of the

Third Sacred War

that pitted

Phocis
against

Thebes

and its allies. Thebes recruited the Macedonians to join them and at

the

Battle of Crocus Field

Phillip decisively defeated Phocis and its Athenian

allies. As a result Macedonia became the leading state in the

Amphictyonic League

and Phillip became head of the Pythian Games, firmly

putting the Macedonian leader at the centre of the Greek political world.

In the continuing conflict with Athens Philip marched east through Thrace in

an attempt to capture

Byzantium

and the Bosphorus

, thus cutting off the Black Sea grain supply that provided Athens

with much of its food. The siege of Byzantium failed, but Athens realized the

grave danger the rise of Macedon presented and under

Demosthenes

built a coalition of many of the major states to oppose the

Macedonians. Most importantly Thebes, which had the strongest ground force of

any of the city states, joined the effort. The allies met the Macedonians at the

Battle of Chaeronea

and were decisively defeated, leaving Philip and the

Macedonians the unquestioned master of Greece.

Empire

Philip’s son,

Alexander the Great

(356–323

BC), managed to briefly extend Macedonian power not only over the central

Greek city-states, but also to the

Persian empire

, including

Egypt
and lands

as far east as the fringes of

India

. Alexander’s adoption of the styles of government of the conquered

territories was accompanied by the spread of Greek culture and learning through

his vast empire. Although the empire fractured into multiple Hellenic regimes

shortly after his death, his conquests left a lasting legacy, not least in the

new Greek-speaking cities founded across Persia’s western territories, heralding

the

Hellenistic

Diadochi,

Macedonia fell to the

Antipatrid dynasty

, which was overthrown by the

Antigonid dynasty

after only a few years, in 294 BC..

Hellenistic era

Antipater

and his son Cassander

gained control of Macedonia but it slid into a long period of

civil strife following Cassander’s death in

297 BC
. It was

ruled for a while by

Demetrius I

(294–288

BC) but fell into civil war.

Demetrius’ son,

Antigonus II

(277–239

BC), defeated a

Galatian

invasion as a

, and regained his family’s position in Macedonia; he

successfully restored order and prosperity there, though he lost control of many

of the Greek city-states. He established a stable monarchy under the

Antigonid dynasty

.

Antigonus III

((239–221

BC) built on these gains by re-establishing Macedonian power across the

region.

What is notable about the Macedonian regime during the Hellenistic times is

that it was the only successor state to the Empire that maintained the old

archaic perception of Kingship, and never adopted the ways of the Hellenistic

Monarchy. Thus the king was never deified in the same way that Ptolemies and

Seleucids were in Egypt and Asia respectively, and never adopted the custom of

Proskynesis

. The ancient Macedonians during the Hellenistic times were still

addressing their kings in a far more casual way than the subjects of the rest of

the Diadochi, and the Kings were still consulting with their aristocracy

(Philoi) in the process of making their decisions.

Conflict with Rome

Under

Philip V of Macedon

(221–179

Perseus of Macedon (179–168

BC), the kingdom clashed with the rising power of the

Roman Republic

. During the

2nd

and 1st centuries BC

, Macedon fought a

series of wars

with Rome. Two major losses that led to their inevitable

defeat were in 197

BC
when Rome defeated Philip V, and

168 BC
when

Rome defeated Perseus. The overall losses resulted in the defeat of Macedon, the

deposition of the Antigonid dynasty and the dismantling of the Macedonian

kingdom. Andriscus

‘ brief success at reestablishing the monarchy in

149 BCC
was

quickly followed by his defeat the following year and the establishment of

direct

Roman

rule and the organization of Macedon as the

Roman province of Macedonia

.

Institutions

éthnē), and between the two, the districts. The