Alaisa Archonidea in Sicily 200BC Zeus Eagle Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i58442

Greek city of Alaisa Archonidea in Sicily
Bronze 20mm (5.46 grams) Struck circa 200-100 B.C.
Reference: HGC 2, 192 (Scarce)
Laureate head of Zeus left; B to right.
ΑΛΑΙΣΑΣ/APX, Eagle with spread wings standing left; tripod to left.

Archonides II, who was a Sicilian dynast of Herbita and a native, founded a new city on the northern coast of Sicily. To distinguish it from another city by the same name, it was called it Alaisa Archonidea, “Archonidean Alaisa”. There were poor colonists from the town of Herbita settled there. However it’s main purpose was to re-settle mercenaries who came to Herbita to fight the Syracusan tyranny of Dionysios I in 404-403 B.C.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the “Father of Gods and men” who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.

Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.

As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, “Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence.” For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, “That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men”. In Hesiod’s Theogony Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods.

His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical “cloud-gatherer” also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.