MYTILENE on Greek island of LESBOS 2-1CenBC Zeus Ammon Dionysus RARE Coin i52016

Greek City of
Mytilene
chief city of the Island of
Lesbos

Bronze 15mm (2.74 grams) Struck circa 2nd-1st centuries B.C.
Reference: Sear 4274; B.M.C.17.194,115
Beardless head of horned Zeus Ammon right.
Terminal figure of bearded Dionysus facing, on pedestal; M – Y / T – I in field,
monogram to left, ivy-leaf to right.

Lesbos was the largest of the islands off the coast of western Asia Minor,

Lesbos lay at the entrance to the gulf of Adramytteion. It was a great cultural

center, and its mild climate and fertile soil supported no less than five

cities, the most important of which was Mytilene. The chief city of Lesbos,

Mytilene was situated in the south-east of the island, opposite the mainland.

There can be little doubt that Mytilene was the mint of the important electrum

coinage of Lesbos in the 5th and 4th centuries.

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Dionysus
is the god of the
grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and
religious ecstasy in
Greek mythology
. Alcohol, especially

wine, played an important role in Greek


culture
with Dionysus being an important reason for this life style. His name, thought
to be a theonym
in
Linear B
tablets as di-wo-nu-so (KH
Gq 5 inscription), shows that he may have been worshipped as early as c.
1500–1100 BC by
Mycenean Greeks
; other traces of the
Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient
Minoan Crete
. His origins are uncertain, and
his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian,
others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic
foreigner; in others, from
Ethiopia
in the South. He is a god of
epiphany
, “the god that comes”, and his
“foreignness” as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential to his
cults. He is a major, popular figure of
Greek mythology
and
religion
, and is included in some lists of the
twelve Olympians
. Dionysus was the last god to
be accepted into Mt. Olympus. He was the youngest and the only one to have a
mortal mother. His festivals were the driving force behind the development of
Greek theatre
. He is an example of a
dying god
.

The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a mature male, bearded and robed.
He holds a fennel
staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known
as a thyrsus
. Later images show him as a
beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth: the literature
describes him as womanly or “man-womanish”. In its fully developed form, his
central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if
from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession (thiasus)
is made up of wild female followers (maenads)
and bearded
satyrs
with
erect penises
. Some are armed with the
thyrsus, some dance or play music. The god himself is drawn in a chariot,
usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers, and is sometimes attended by a
bearded, drunken Silenus
. This procession is presumed to be the
cult model for the human followers of his
Dionysian Mysteries
. In his
Thracian
mysteries, he wears the bassaris
or
foxx-skin, symbolizing a new life. Dionysus is represented by city
religions as the protector of those who do not belong to conventional society
and thus symbolizes everything which is chaotic, dangerous and unexpected,
everything which escapes human reason and which can only be attributed to the
unforeseeable action of the gods.

Also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the
Romans
and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia.
His thyrsus is sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey. It is a
beneficent wand but also a weapon, and can be used to destroy those who oppose
his cult and the freedoms he represents. He is also called Eleutherios
(“the liberator”), whose wine, music and ecstatic dance frees his followers from
self-conscious fear and care, and subverts the oppressive restraints of the
powerful. Those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the
god himself. His cult is also a “cult of the souls”; his maenads feed the dead
through blood-offerings, and he acts as a divine communicant between the living
and the dead.

In Greek mythology, he is presented as a son of

Zeus and the mortal
Semele
, thus semi-divine or

heroic: and as son of Zeus and
Persephone
or
Demeter
, thus both fully divine, part-chthonic
and possibly identical with
Iacchus
of the
Eleusinian Mysteries
. Some scholars believe
that Dionysus is a
syncretism
of a local Greek nature deity and a
more powerful god from
Thrace
or
Phrygia
such as
Sabazios
or
Zalmoxis
.

Mytilene (Greek:

Μυτιλήνη) is the

capital

city
of

Lesbos

, a Greek island

in the

Aegean Sea
,

and capital of

Lesbos Prefecture

and the Northern Aegean region. It is built on the

southeast edge of the island. Mytilene, whose name is pre-Greek, is also the

seat of a metropolitan

bishop
of the

Orthodox church

.

As an ancient city, lying off the east coast, Mytilene was initially confined

to an island that later was joined to

Lesbos
,

creating a north and south harbour.^[

neededcitation] Mytilene contested successfully with

Methymna

in the north of the island for the leadership of the island in the

seventh century BC and became the centre of the island’s prosperous hinterland.^[

neededcitation] Her most famous citizens were the poets

Sappho
and

Alcaeus

and the statesman

Pittacus

(one of the Seven Sages of ancient Greece). The city was famed for

its great output of

electrum

coins struck from the late 6th through mid 4th centuries BC.^[2]

Mytilene revolted against Athens in 428 BC but was overcome by an Athenian

expeditionary force. The Athenian public assembly voted to massacre all the men

of the city and to sell the women and children into slavery but

changed its mind

the next day. A fast trireme sailed the 186 nautical miles

in less than a day and brought the decision to cancel the massacre.

Aristotle

lived on Mytilene for two years, 337-335 BC, with his friend and successor,

Theophrastuss

after becoming the tutor to

Alexander

, son of King Philip II of Macedon.^[3][4]

The Romans, among whom was a young

Julius Caesar

, successfully besieged Mytilene in 80 B.C. Although Mytilene

supported the losing side in most of the great wars of the first century BC her

statesmen succeeded in convincing Rome of her support of the new ruler of the

Mediterranean and the city flourished in Roman times.

In AD 56

Paul the Apostle

stopped there on the return trip of his third missionary

journey(

20:14Acts).