KORYKOS in CILICIA 1stCenBC Tyche Hermes Authentic Ancient Greek Coin i47329

Item: i47329

Authentic Ancient Coin of:

Greek city of

Bronze 22mm (6.08 grams) Struck 1st Century B.C.

Reference: Sear 5545; B.M.C.21.66,1-4

Turreted head of Tyche right, AN behind.

Hermes standing left, holding phiale and caduceus;

ΚΩΡVKIΩΤΩΝ behind,
 ΔΙ / NI / AN in field to left. 

A coastal town midway between the

mouths of the rivers Lamos and Kalykadnos, Korykos was

chiefly known for the nearby mountain grotto, called the

Korykian Cave, which was celebrated by the poets.

 You

Authenticity.  

Tyche (Greek for luck; the Roman equivalent was
Fortuna
) was the
presiding
tutelary deity
that
governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its
destiny. Increasingly during the Hellenistic period,
cities had their own specific iconic version of Tyche,
wearing a
mural crown
(a crown
like the walls of the city).

The
Greek historian
Polybius
believed that
when no cause can be discovered to events such as
floods, droughts, frosts or even in politics, then the
cause of these events may be fairly attributed to Tyche.

Stylianos Spyridakis  concisely expressed
Tyche’s appeal in a Hellenistic world of arbitrary
violence and unmeaning reverses: “In the turbulent years
of the
Epigoni of Alexander
,
an awareness of the instability of human affairs led
people to believe that Tyche, the blind mistress of
Fortune, governed mankind with an inconstancy which
explained the vicissitudes of the time.”

In literature, she might be given various
genealogies, as a daughter of
Hermes
and
Aphrodite
, or
considered as one of the
Oceanids
, daughters of
Oceanus
and
Tethys
, or of
Zeus
. She was connected
with
Nemesis
and
Agathos Daimon
(“good
spirit”).

She was uniquely venerated at
Itanos
in Crete, as
Tyche Protogeneia, linked with the Athenian
Protogeneia

(“firstborn”), daughter of
Erechtheus
, whose
self-sacrifice saved the city.

She had temples at
Caesarea Maritima
,
Antioch
,
Alexandria
and
Constantinople
. In
Alexandria
the
Tychaeon, the temple of Tyche, was described by
Libanius
as one of the
most magnificent of the entire Hellenistic world.

Tyche appears on many
coins
of the
Hellenistic period in the three centuries before the
Christian era, especially from cities in the Aegean.
Unpredictable turns of fortune drive the complicated
plotlines of
Hellenistic romances
,
such as
Leucippe and Clitophon

or
Daphnis and Chloe
.
She experienced a resurgence in another era of uneasy
change, the final days of publicly sanctioned
Paganism
, between the
late-fourth-century emperors
Julian
and
Theodosius I
who
definitively closed the temples. The effectiveness of
her capricious power even achieved respectability in
philosophical circles during that generation, though
among poets it was a commonplace to revile her for a
fickle harlot.

In
medieval art
, she was
depicted as carrying a
cornucopia
, an
emblematic
ship’s
rudder, and the
wheel of fortune
, or
she may stand on the wheel, presiding over the entire
circle of fate.

The constellation of
Virgo
is sometimes
identified as the heavenly figure of Tyche, as well as
other goddesses such as
Demeter
and
Astraea
.

Hermes
is the great messenger of the gods in
Greek mythology
and
additionally as a
guide to the Underworld
.
Hermes was born on
Mount Cyllene
in
Arcadia. An
Olympian god
, he is
also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who
cross them, of
shepherds
and
cowherds
, of the
cunning of thieves and liars, of orators and wit, of
literature and poets, of athletics and sports, of
weights and measures, of invention, and of commerce in
general. His symbols include the tortoise, the rooster,
the winged sandals, the winged hat, and the
caduceus
(given to him
by Apollo in exchange for the lyre).

Symbols of Hermes were the palm tree, turtle, rooster,
goat, the number four, several kinds of fish, incense.
Sacrifices involved honey, cakes, pigs, goats, and
lambs.

In the Roman adaptation of the Greek religion (see
interpretatio romana
),
Hermes was identified with the Roman god
Mercury
, who, though
inherited from the
Etruscans
, developed
many similar characteristics, such as being the patron
of commerce.

The
Homeric hymn
to Hermes
invokes him as the one “of many shifts (polytropos),
blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of
dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one
who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the
deathless gods.”

He protects and takes care of all the travelers,
miscreants, harlots, old
crones
and thieves that
pray to him or cross his path. He is athletic and is
always looking out for runners, or any athletes with
injuries who need his help.

Hermes is a messenger from the gods to humans,
sharing this role with
Iris
. An interpreter
who bridges the boundaries with strangers is a
hermeneus. Hermes gives us our word “hermeneutics“,
the study and theory of interpretation. In Greek a lucky
find was a hermaion. Hermes delivered messages
from Olympus to the mortal world. He wears shoes with
wings on them and uses them to fly freely between the
mortal and immortal world. Hermes was the second
youngest of the
Olympian gods
, being
born before
Dionysus
.

Hermes, as an inventor of fire, is a parallel of the
Titan
,
Prometheus
. In addition
to the
lyre
, Hermes was
believed to have invented many types of racing and the
sports of wrestling and boxing, and therefore was a
patron of athletes.

According to prominent
folklorist

Yeleazar Meletinsky
,
Hermes is a deified
trickster
. Hermes also
served as a
psychopomp
, or an
escort for the dead to help them find their way to the
afterlife
(the
Underworld
in the Greek
myths). In many Greek myths, Hermes was depicted as the
only god besides
Hades
,
Persephone
,
Hecate
, and
Thanatos
who could
enter and leave the Underworld without hindrance.

Hermes often helped travelers have a safe and easy
journey. Many Greeks would sacrifice to Hermes before
any trip.

In the fully-developed Olympian pantheon, Hermes was
the son of
Zeus
and the
Pleiade

Maia
, a daughter of the
Titan
Atlas
. Hermes’ symbols
were the
cock
and the
tortoise
, and he can be
recognized by his purse or pouch,
winged sandals
,
winged cap
, and the
herald’s staff, the
kerykeion
. The
night he was born he slipped away from Maia and stole
his elder brother
Apollo

Corycus (Greek:

Κώρυκος; also

transliterated

Corycos or Korykos;

Armenian

: Կոռիկոս)

was an ancient city in

Cilicia Trachaea

,

Anatolia

, located at the mouth of the Calycadnus

(now

Göksu

); the site is now occupied by the town of

Kızkalesi

(formerly Ghorgos),

Mersin Province

,

Turkey

.

 The

city

Strabo

does not mention a town of Corycus, but

reports a promontory so called at the location, but a

town Corycus is mentioned by

Livy

(xxxiii. 20), and by

Pliny

(v. 27), and

Pomponius Mela

(i. 13), and

Stephanus of Byzantium

(s. v. Κώρυκος). In antiquity

Corycus was an important harbor and commercial town. It

was the port of

Seleucia

, where, in 191 BCE, the fleet of

Antiochus the Great

was defeated by the

Romans

. In the Roman times it preserved its ancient

laws; the emperors usually kept a fleet there to watch

over the pirates. Corycus was also a mint in antiquity

and some of its coins survive.

Corycus was controlled by the

Byzantine Empire

.

Justinian I

restored the public baths and a

hospital.

Alexios I Komnenos

re-equipped the fortress, which

had been dismantled. At the beginning of the 12th

century the Byzantines built a supplementary castle on a

small island. This castle was later called “maidens

castle” (Turkish:

Kız kalesi),

because it was told that a king held his daughter here

in captivity until she was killed by a venomous snake.

It was prophesied she would die by a snake bite. So she

was taken to the sea castle to protect her, but a

serpent was taken by basket to the castle, she was

bitten and died. Soon after Corycus was conquered by the

Armenians

, who held it till the middle of the 14th

century, as part of the

Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia

. In the 14th century,

the city was occupied temporarily by the

Turks

, and for a time played an important part. The

city fell to the

Lusignans

of

Cyprus

. It was taken by the

Mamelukes

, and again by

Peter I of Cyprus

in 1361. In the late 14th century

it fell again to the Turks. From 1448 or 1454 it

belonged alternately to the

Karamanlis

, the Egyptians, the Karamanlis a second

time, and finally to the

Osmanlis

.

The ruins of the city are extensive. Among them are a

triumphal arch, a

necropolis

with a beautiful

Christian

tomb,

sarcophagi

, etc. The two medieval castles, one on

the shore, the other in an islet, connected by a ruined

pier, are partially preserved; the former was reputed

impregnable. The walls of the castle on the mainland

contain many pieces of columns; and a mole of great

unhewn rocks projects from one angle of the fortress

about a hundred yards across the bay. Three churches are

also found, one decorated with frescoes. The walls of

the ancient city may still be traced, and there appear

to be sufficient remains to invite a careful examination

of the spot.

The city figures in the

of

Hierocles

, and about 840 in

Gustav Parthey

‘s Notitia Prima.

Ecclesiastically, it was a

see

, suffragan of

Tarsus

.

Lequien

(II, 879) mentions five

Greek Orthodox

bishops from 381 to 680; another is

known from an inscription (Waddington, Inscriptions

… d’Asie mineure, 341). One

Latin

Bishop, Gerardus, was present at a

Council of Antioch

about 1136; four are known in the

fourteenth century (Lequien,

III, 1197;

Eubel

, I, 218). Corycus remains a

titular see

of the

Roman Catholic Church

, Coryciensis; the seat

is vacant since the death of the last bishop in 1967.

 Corycian

Cave

In the Corycian Cave (now Cennet ve Cehennem), 20

stadia inland, says Strabo, the best

crocus

(saffron)

grows. He describes this cave as a great hollow, of a

circular form, surrounded by a margin of rock, on all

sides of a considerable height; on descending into this

cavity, the ground is found to be uneven and generally

rocky, and it is filled with shrubs, both evergreen and

cultivated; in some parts the saffron is cultivated:

there is also a cave here which contains a large source,

which pours forth a river of pure, pellucid water, but

it immediately sinks into the earth, and flowing

underground enters the sea: they call it the Bitter

Water.

Pomponius Mela

(i.13) has a long description of the

same place apparently from the same authority that

Strabo followed, but more embellished. This place is

probably on the top of the mountain above Corycus.

This place is famed in

Greek mythology

. It is the

Cilician

cave of

Pindar

(Pythian Ode i. 31), and of

Aeschylus

(Prom. Vinct. 350), and as

Arima, couch of Typhoeus

, it is the lair of Zeus’

fiercest opponent, the giant

Typhon

or Typhoeus.