KARDIA in THRACE 350BC Persephone Lion Authentic Ancient Greek Coin RARE i52587

Item: i52587

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of

Bronze 20mm (7.93 grams) Struck circa 350-309 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1598; SNG Copenhagen 862; BMC 1
Wreathed head of Persephone left, wearing earring and necklace.
KAPΔIA,
Lion standing left, breaking a spear held in its mouth; kernel of grain
in exergue.

Kardia was originally a colony of Miletos. It was destroyed by Lysimachos in 309 B.C..

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In
Greek mythology
,
Persephone is the
daughter of Zeus
and the harvest-goddess
Demeter
, and queen of the
underworld
; she was abducted by
Hades
, the god-king of the underworld.

The myth of her abduction represents her function as the
personification
of
vegetation
which shoots forth in
spring
and withdraws into the earth after
harvest; hence she is also associated with spring and with the seeds of the
fruits of the fields. Persephone as a
vegetation goddess
(Kore) and her mother
Demeter
were the central figures of the
Eleusinian mysteries
that predated the
Olympian pantheon
. In the
Linear B
(Mycenean
Greek
) tablets dated 1400-1200 BC found at
Pylos
, the “two mistresses and the king” are
mentioned;
John Chadwick
identifies these as
Demeter
, Persephone and
Poseidon
.

In
Classical Greek art
, Persephone is invariably
portrayed robed; often carrying a
sheaf
of grain. In
Roman mythology
, she is called
Proserpina
.

Cardia (in

Greek
Kαρδία), anciently the chief town
of the
Thracian Chersonese
(today
Gallipoli
peninsula), was situated at the head
of the gulf of Melas (today Saros bay). It was originally a
colony
of the
Milesians
and
Clazomenians
; but subsequently, in the time of
Miltiades
(late 6th century BC), the place also
received Athenian
colonists, as proved by Miltiades
tyranny (515–493 BC). But this didn’t make Cardia necessarily always
pro-Athenian: when in 357 BC Athens took control of the Chersonese, the latter,
under the rule of a
Thracian
prince, was the only city to remain
neutral; but the decisive year was 352 BC when the city concluded a treaty of
amity with king
Philip II of Macedonia
. A great crisis exploded
when Diopeithes
, an Athenian mercenary captain, had
in 343 BC brought Attic settlers to the town; and since Cardia was unwilling to
receive them, Philip immediately sent help to the town. The king proposed to
settle the dispute between the two cities by arbitration, but Athens refused.
The town was destroyed by
Lysimachus
about 309 BC,
and although it was afterwards rebuilt, it never again rose to any degree of
prosperity, as
Lysimachia
, which was built in its vicinity and
peopled with the inhabitants of Cardia, became the chief town in that
neighbourhood.
Cardia was the birthplace of Alexander’s secretary
Eumenes

and of the historian
Hieronymus
.