NAGIDOS in CILICIA 420BC Ancient Silver Greek Coin Aphrodite Dionysos i54362

Item: i54362

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Greek city of Nagidos in Cilicia

Silver Obol 9mm (0.66 grams) Struck circa 420-380 B.C.

Reference: Cf. SNG France 14-15 (Legend).

Head of Aphrodite right, hair bound in sphendone.
NAΓΙΔΕΩΝ, Head of Dionysos right.

An important coastal town of western Cilicia, Nagidos lay about 20 miles to the 
west of Kelenderis.

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Aphrodite is the
Greek

goddess
of

love, beauty
, and
sexuality
. Her
Roman equivalent
is the goddess

Venus
. Historically, her cult in 
Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the

cult 
of Astarte
in
Phoenicia
.

According to Hesiod
‘s
Theogony
, she was born when
Cronus
cut off
Uranus
‘ genitals and threw them into the sea, 
and from the sea foam (aphros) arose Aphrodite.

Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the 
peace among them and lead to war, and so

Zeus married her to
Hephaestus
, who was not viewed as a threat. 
Aphrodite had many lovers, both gods like

Ares, and men like
Anchises
. Aphrodite also became instrumental in 
the 
Eros and Psyche
legend, and later was both
Adonis
‘ lover and his surrogate mother. Many 
lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite.

Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and
Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two cult-sites,
Cythera
and
Cyprus
, which claimed her birth.
Myrtles
,
doves
,
sparrows
,
horses
, and

swans are sacred to her. The Greeks further identified the Ancient 
Egyptian goddess Hathor
with Aphrodite.^[4]

Dionysuss
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
fox-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
.

Bozyazı is a town and district of
Mersin Province
on the
Mediterranean
coast of
Turkey
, 220 km (137 mi) west of the city of
Mersin
.

 Geography

Bozyazı is a remote coastal district with the
Taurus Mountains
as a backdrop; The roads over 
the mountains or along the coast from either direction are very difficult to 
drive making Bozyazı too far from large cities or the established centres of 
tourism to attract many visitors, so the district is quiet and unspoilt. However 
there are developments of holiday flats in some places, mainly owned by people 
from Konya
and
Ankara
as well as foreigners. The sea is clean 
and Bozyazı is home to an important colony of the endangered
Mediterranean Monk Seal
.

The narrow coastal strip has a temperate climate and is used to grow bananas 
along with strawberries, citrus fruits, ground-nuts, and a variety vegetables 
and fruits. The higher land (over 50% of the district) meanwhile is used for 
apples and walnuts. There are areas of cedar and fir trees.

The highest peaks are Tol Dağı (1,250 m), Azıtepe (780 m), Susmak Dağı (1,600 
m), Kaş Dağı (1,639 m) and Elmakuzu Dağı (1,690 m), there are areas of high 
meadow in these mountains used for summer grazing. Bozyazı river rushes off 
Elmakız through a rocky gorge, there is a dam and hyrodelectric power station 
14 km north of Bozyazı.

About 60% of the population lives in the town of Bozyazı, a small town 
providing high schools and healthcare to the surrounding villages. There are two 
other small towns (Tekmen 
and Tekeli
) and about 40 villages. The biggest 
village is Karaisali. These are quiet places where the people are conservative; 
old and young spend the evenings sitting by the sea spitting out sunflower and 
pumpkin seeds; there is little nightlife, maybe the odd restaurant with a piano 
player.

 History

The ruins of the ancient city of
Nagidos
are on a hill above the town of Bozyazı. 
They are being excavated by a team from
Mersin University
who have found traces of 
occupation going back to the
Hellenistic
period of the 4th century BC, when 
Nagidos was an outpost of
Rhodes
and
Samos
, a small port established to trade goods 
from Egypt
and
Cyprus
. The town was subsequently controlled by
Egyptians
,
Ancient Romans
,
Byzantines
and
Seljuk Turks
.