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Greek city of Abdera in Thrace
Silver Obol 7mm (0.50 grams) Struck circa 395-360 B.C.
Griffin seated right, raising paw.
Head of ram right.
Abdera, a town of Thrace, near the mouth of the Nestus, which flowed through the town. According to mythology, it was founded by Hercules in honor of his favorite Abderus ; but according to history, it was colonized by Timesius of Klazomenai about B.C. 656. Timesius was expelled by the Thracians, and the town was colonized a second time by the inhabitants of Teos in Ionia., who settled there after their own town had been taken by the Persians B.C. 544. Abdera was a flourishing town when Xerxes invaded Greece, and continued a place of importance under the Romans, who made it a free city. It was the birthplace of Democritus, Protagoras, Anaxarchus, and other distinguished men ; but its inhabitants notwithstanding were accounted stupid, and an “Abderite” was a term of reproach.
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 The griffin is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle’s talons as its front feet. As the lion was traditionally considered the king of the beasts and the eagle was the king of the birds, the griffin was thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. The griffin was also thought of as king of the creatures. Griffins are known for guarding treasure and priceless possessions. Adrienne Mayor, a classical folklorist, proposes that the griffin was an ancient misconception derived from the fossilized remains of the Protoceratops found in gold mines in the Altai mountains of Scythia, in present day southeastern Kazakhstan, or in Mongolia.In antiquity it was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine. Some have suggested that the word griffin is cognate with Cherub.
Abdera was a city-state on the coast of Thrace 17 km east-northeast of the mouth of the Nestos, and almost opposite Thasos. The site now lies in the Xanthi Prefecture of modern Greece. The municipality of Abdera, or Ávdira.
Its mythical foundation was attributed to Heracles (on behalf of his fallen friend Abderus), its historical one to a colony from Klazomenai. This historical founding was traditionally dated to 654 BC, which is unverified, although evidence in 7th century BC Greek pottery tends to support it. But its prosperity dates from 544 BC, when the majority of the people of Teos (including the poet Anacreon) migrated to Abdera to escape the Persian yoke (Herodotus i.168). The chief coin type, a griffon, is identical with that of Teos; the rich silver coinage is noted for the beauty and variety of its reverse types.
In 513 BC and 512 BC, the Persians conquered Abdera. In 492 BC, the Persians again conquered Abdera, this time under Darius I. It later became part of the Delian League and fought on the side of Athens in the Peloponnesian war.
Abdera was a wealthy city, the third richest in the League, due to its production of corn and status as a prime port for trade with the interior of Thrace and the Odrysian kingdom.
A valuable prize, the city was repeatedly sacked: by the Triballi in 376 BC, Philip II of Macedon in 350 BC; later by Lysimachos of Thrace, the Seleucids, the Ptolemies, and again by the Macedonians. In 170 BC the Roman armies and those of Eumenes II of Pergamon besieged and sacked it.
The town seems to have declined in importance after the middle of the 4th century BC. The air of Abdera was proverbial in Athens as causing stupidity, but the city counted among its citizens the philosophers Democritus, Protagoras and Anaxarchus, and historian and philosopher Hecataeus of Abdera.
The ruins of the town may still be seen on Cape Balastra; they cover seven small hills, and extend from an eastern to a western harbor; on the southwestern hills are the remains of the medieval settlement of Polystylon. Abdera is a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church in the province of Rhodope on the southern coast of Thrace, now called Bouloustra.
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