Elaia in Asia Minor 200BC Ancient Greek Coin Demeter Torch HOPE emblem i27780

Item: i27780

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Greek City of Elaia in Asia Minor

Bronze 15mm (2.99 grams) Struck circa 200-100 B.C.

Head of Demeter right, wreathed with corn, star behind.

Torch; EΛ – AI / T – ΩΝ; all within corn wreath.

A coastal town situated south-west of Pergamon, Elaia served

as a port for its more important neighbor during the time of the Pergamene

Kingdom.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

The torch is a common
emblem
of both
enlightenment
and

hope. Thus the
Statue of Liberty
, actually “Liberty
Enlightening the World”, lifts her torch. Crossed reversed torches were signs of
mourning that appear on Greek and Roman funerary monuments—a torch pointed
downwards symbolizes death
, while a torch held up symbolizes life,
truth and the regenerative power of flame.

In
Greek mythology
, Demeter (ancient
Greek Δημήτηρ, Dēmētēr)
was the goddess of the harvest, who presided over
grains
, the
fertility
of the earth, the
seasons
(personified by the
Hours
), and the
harvest
. One of her surnames is Sito (σίτος:
wheat) as the giver of food or corn. Though Demeter is often described simply as
the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of
marriage
, the
sacred law
, and the cycle of
life and death
. She and her daughter
Persephone
were the central figures of the
Eleusinian Mysteries
that also predated the
Olympian pantheon.

Her
Roman
cognate is
Ceres
.

Elaea or Elaia (Greek:

Έλαία) was an ancient city of

Aeolis
,

Asia

, the port of

Pergamum

; the site is not precisely determined but is near

Zeytindağ

,

İzmir Province

, Turkey

.

According to the present text of

Stephanus of Byzantium

, it was also called Cidaenis (Greek: Κιδαινίς),

and was founded by

Menestheus
;

but it seems likely that there is some error in the reading Cidaenis.^[1]

Strabo
places

Elaea south of the river

Caicus

, 12 stadia from the river, and 120 stadia from Pergamum. The Caicus

enters a bay, which was called

Elaiticus Sinus

, or the bay of Elaea. Strabo calls the bay of Elaea part of

the bay of

Adramyttium

, but incorrectly. He has the story, which Stephanus has taken

from him, that Elaea was a settlement made by Menestheus and the

Athenians
with

him, who joined the war against Troy; but Strabo does not explain how it could

be an Aeolian

city, if this story was true. Elaea minted coins, which bear the head and name

of Menestheus. Some argue that these are some evidence of its Athenian origin;

but others, including

William Smith

discount the connection.

Herodotus

(i. 149) does not name Elaea among the Aeolian cities. Strabo makes the bay of

Elaea terminate on one side in a point called Hydra, and on the other in a

promontory Harmatus; and he estimates the width between these points at 80

stadia. Thucydides

(viii. 101) places Harmatus opposite to Methymna, from which, and

the rest of the narrative, it is clear that he fixes Harmatus in a different

place from Strabo. The exact site of Elaea seems to be uncertain.

William Martin Leake

, in his map, fixes it at a place marked Kliseli, on the

road from the south to Pergamum.

Scylax

(p. 35),

Pomponius Mela

(i. 18),

Pliny

(v. 32), and

Ptolemy
(v.

2), all of whom mention Elaea, do not help us to the precise place; all we learn

from them is, that the Caicus flowed between

Pitane
and

Elaea.

Elaea was located near the modern town of Zeytindağ, according to the

Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World

.

The name of Elaea occurs in the history of the kings of Pergamum. According

to Strabo, from Livy

(xxxv. 13), travellers who would reach Pergamum from the sea, would land at

Elaea.^[2]

One of the passages of Livy shows that there was a small hill (tumulus) near

Elaea, and that the town was in a plain and walled. Elaea was damaged by an

earthquake in the reign of

Trajan
, at the

same time that Pitane suffered.