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Greek city of Lampsakos in Mysia
Bronze 10mm (0.96 grams) Struck circa 300-200 B.C.
Reference: Sear 3906 var.
ΛAM, Crested Corinthian helmet right.
ΨA, Forepart of winged horse right; dolphin beneath.
A colony of Phokaia, Lampsakos was strategically placed at the eastern entrance to the Hellespont and rose to to be a city of great importance. Although under Persian and Athenian control for much of the sixth and fifth centuries, Lampsakos managed to preserver its prosperity into the Hellenistic age.
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Pegasus (Greek Πήγασος/Pegasos, Latin Pegasus) is one of the best known fantastical creatures in Greek mythology . He is a winged divine horse, usually white in color. He was sired by Poseidon , in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa . He was the brother of Chrysaor , born at a single birthing when  his mother was decapitated by Perseus. Greco-Roman poets write about his ascent to heaven after his birth and his obeisance to Zeus, king of the gods, who instructed him to bring lightning and thunder from Olympus. Friend of the Muses, Pegasus is the creator of Hippocrene , the fountain on Mt. Helicon . He was captured by the Greek hero Bellerophon near the fountain Peirene with the help of Athena and Poseidon. Pegasus allows the hero to ride him to defeat a monster, the Chimera, before realizing many other exploits. His rider, however, falls off his back trying to reach Mount Olympus. Zeus transformed him into the constellation Pegasus and placed him in the sky.
Hypotheses have been proposed regarding its relationship with the Muses , the gods Athena , Poseidon , Zeus, Apollo , and the hero Perseus .
The symbolism of Pegasus varies with time. Symbol of wisdom and especially of fame from the Middle Ages until the Renaissance, he became one symbol of the poetry and the creator of sources in which the poets come to draw inspiration, particularly in the 19th century. Pegasus is the subject of a very rich iconography, especially through the ancient Greek pottery and paintings and sculptures of the Renaissance. Personification of the water, solar myth, or shaman mount, Carl Jung and his followers have seen in Pegasus a profound symbolic esoteric in relation to the spiritual energy that allows to access to the realm of the gods on Mount Olympus.
In the 20th and 21st century, he appeared in movies, in fantasy, in video games and in role play, where by extension, the term Pegasus is often used to refer to any winged horse.
Lampsacus (Greek: Λάμψακος, Lampsakos, modern:Lapseki) was an ancient Greek city strategically located on the eastern side of the Hellespont in the northern Troad . An inhabitant of Lampsacus was called a Lampsacene. The name has been transmitted in the nearby modern town of Lapseki .
History
Originally known as Pityusa or Pityussa (Greek: Πιτυουσα, Pituousa, or Πιτυουσσα, Pituoussa), it was colonized from Phocaea and Miletus . During the 6th and 5th century BC , Lampsacus was successively dominated by Lydia , Persia , Athens , and Sparta ; Artaxerxes I assigned it to Themistocles with the expectation that the city supply the Persian king with its famous wine . Lampsacus joined the Delian League after the battle of Mycale , and paid a tribute of twelve talents , a testimony to its wealth, and it had a gold coinage in the 4th century BC , an activity only available to the more prosperous cities.
A revolt against the Athenians in 411 BC was put down by force. In 196 BC , the Romans defended the town against Antiochus the Great , and it became an ally of Rome; Cicero (2 Verr. i. 24. 63) and Strabo (13. 1. 15) attest its continuing prosperity under Roman rule. Lampsacus was also notable for its worship of Priapus , who was said to have been born there.
Lampsacus produced a series of notable philosophers. Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the elder) (5th century BC) was a philosopher from the school of Anaxagoras . Strato of Lampsacus (c. 335-c. 269 BC) was a Peripatetic philosopher and the third director of Aristotle’s Lyceum at Athens. Euaeon of Lampsacus was one of Plato ‘s students. A group of Lampsacenes were in the circle of Epicurus ; they included Polyaenus of Lampsacus (c. 340 – 278 BC) a mathematician, the philosophers Idomeneus of Lampsacus , Colotes the satirist and Leonteus of Lampsacus ; Batis of Lampsacus the wife of Idomeneus, was the sister of Metrodorus of Lampsacus (the younger) , whose elder brother, also a friend of Epicurus, was Timocrates of Lampsacus .
Christian history
According to legend, St Tryphon was buried at Lampsacus after his martyrdom at Nicaea in 250 AD .
The first known bishop in Lampsacus was Parthenius , under Constantine I . In 364, the see was occupied by Marcian and in the same year a council of bishops was held at Lampsacus. Marcian, was summoned to the First Council of Constantinople of Constantinople in 381, but refused to retract his adherence of the Macedonian Christian sect. Other known Bishops of Lampsacus were Daniel , who assisted at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Harmonius (458); Constantine (680), who attended the Third Council of Constantinople ; John (787), at Nicaea; St. Euschemon , a correspondent of St. Theodore the Studite , and a confessor of the Faith for the veneration of images, under Theophilus . The See of Lampsacus is mentioned in the “Notitiae Episcopatuum” until about the twelfth or thirteenth century.
Modern settlement
The nearby settlement of Lapseki has inherited the name; its population is now in the region of 11,000.
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