Greek city of Pergamon in Mysia
Bronze 16mm (3.15 grams) Struck circa: 282-133 B.C.
Regal Bronze Coinage of Pergamon (These are all inscribed with the name of the dynasty’s founder,
Philetairos, and firm attributions to particular reigns are not possible)
Reference: Sear 7229
Head of Athena right, in crested helmet ornamented with griffin.
Thyrsos; on right, ΦΙΛΕΤΑΙΡΟΥ.

Situated in the Kaikos valley, about 15 miles from the coast, Pergamon was a city of uncertain origin and of no great importance before the time of Alexander the Great. In the 3rd century B.C. it became the center of the independent kingdom ruled by the Attalid dynasty founded by Philetairos. The city was extended and beautified as the prosperity of the kingdom increased, and by the late Hellenistic times Pergamon ranked as one of the great cultural centers of the Greek world. After the end of the kingdom, 133 B.C., Pergamon became capital of the Roman province of Asia.

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Athena or Athene (Latin: Minerva), also referred to as Pallas Athena, is the goddess of war, civilization, wisdom, strength, strategy, crafts, justice and skill in Greek mythology. Minerva, Athena’s Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is also a shrewd companion of heroes and the goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens. The Athenians built the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens, in her honour (Athena Parthenos). Athena’s cult as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the earliest times and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis), many people throughout the Greek world worshiped Athena as Athena Polias (“Athena of the city”). Athens and Athena bear etymologically connected names.

A thyrsus or thyrsos was a wand or staff of giant fennel (Ferula communis) covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone.

Symbolism

The thyrsus, associated with Dionysus (or Bacchus) and his followers, the Satyrs and Maenads, is a symbol of prosperity, fertility, hedonism, and pleasure/enjoyment in general. It has been suggested that this was specifically a fertility phallus, with the fennel representing the shaft of the penis and the pine cone representing the “seed” issuing forth. The thyrsus was tossed in the Bacchic dance:

Pentheus: The thyrsus- in my right hand shall I hold it?

Or thus am I more like a Bacchanal?

Dionysus: In thy right hand, and with thy right foot raise it”.

Sometimes the thyrsus was displayed in conjunction with a kantharos wine cup, another symbol of Dionysus, forming a male-and-female combination like that of the royal scepter and orb.

Use

In Greek religion, the staff was carried by the votaries of Dionysus. Euripides wrote that honey dripped from the thyrsos staves that the Bacchic maenads carried. The thyrsus was a sacred instrument at religious rituals and fêtes.

The fabulous history of Bacchus relates that he converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers into dangerous weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves. Hence his thyrsus is called “a spear enveloped in vine-leaves”, and its point was thought to incite to madness.

Literature

In the Iliad, Diomedes, one of the leading warriors of the Achaeans, mentions the thyrsus while speaking to Glaucus, one of the Lycian commanders in the Trojan army, about Lycurgus, the king of Scyros:

He it was that/drove the nursing women who were in charge/of frenzied Bacchus through the land of Nysa,/and they flung their thyrsi on the ground as/murderous Lycurgus beat them with his ox-/goad. (Iliad, Book VI.132-37)

The thyrsus is explicitly attributed to Dionysus in Euripides’s play The Bacchae as part of the costume of the Dionysian cult.

…To raise my Bacchic shout, and clothe all who respond/ In fawnskin habits, and put my thyrsus in their hands-/ The weapon wreathed with ivy-shoots…” Euripides also writes, “There’s a brute wildness in the fennel-wands-Reverence it well.” (The Bacchae and Other Plays, trans. by Philip Vellacott, Penguin, 1954.)

Plato writes in Phaedo:

I conceive that the founders of the mysteries had a real meaning and were not mere triflers when they intimated in a figure long ago that he who passes unsanctified and uninitiated into the world below will live in a slough, but that he who arrives there after initiation and purification will dwell with the gods. For “many,” as they say in the mysteries, “are the thyrsus bearers, but few are the mystics,”–meaning, as I interpret the words, the true philosophers.

In Part II of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, Mephistopheles tries to catch a Lamia, only to find out that she is an illusion:

Well, then, a tall one I will catch…/And now a thyrsus-pole I snatch!/Only a pine-cone as its head. (7775-7777)

Robert Browning mentions the thyrsus in passing in The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St Praxed’s Church, as the dying bishop confuses Christian piety with classical extravagance:

The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me,/Those Pans and nymphs ye wot of, and perchance/Some tripod, thrysus, with a vase or so, (56-58)

Pergamon was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located 26 kilometres (16 mi) from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus (modern-day Bakırçay) and northwest of the modern city of Bergama. Many remains of its impressive monuments can still be seen and especially the outstanding masterpiece of the Pergamon Altar. It became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period under the Attalid dynasty in 281-133 BC. Pergamon is cited in the Book of Revelation as one of the seven churches of Asia.

Antiquity

Xenophon provides the earliest surviving documentary mention of Pergamon. Captured by Xenophon in 399 BC and immediately recaptured by the Persians, it was severely punished in 362 BC after a revolt. It did not become important until Lysimachus, King of Thrace, took possession in 301 BC, but soon after his lieutenant Philetaerus enlarged the town, the kingdom of Thrace collapsed and it became the capital of the new kingdom of Pergamon which Philetaerus founded in 281 BC, beginning the Attalid dynasty. In 261 BC he bequeathed his possessions to his nephew Eumenes I (263-241 BC), who increased them greatly, leaving as heir his cousin Attalus I (241-197 BC).

The Attalids became some of the most loyal supporters of Rome in the Hellenistic world. Under Attalus I (241-197 BC), they allied with Rome against Philip V of Macedon, during the first and second Macedonian Wars, and again under Eumenes II (197-158 BC), against Perseus of Macedon, during the Third Macedonian War. For their support against the Seleucids, the Attalids were rewarded with all the former Seleucid domains in Asia Minor.

As a consequence of its rise to power, the city expanded greatly. Until 188 BC, it had not grown significantly since its founding by Philetaerus, and covered c. 21 hectares (52 acres). After this year, a massive new city wall was constructed, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) long and enclosing an area of approximately 90 hectares (220 acres).

The Attalids ruled with intelligence and generosity. Many documents survive showing how the Attalids supported the growth of towns by sending in skilled artisans and by remitting taxes. They allowed the Greek cities in their domains to maintain nominal independence. They sent gifts to Greek cultural sites like Delphi, Delos, and Athens. They defeated the invading Celts. They remodeled the Acropolis of Pergamon after the Acropolis in Athens. When Attalus III (138-133 BC) died without an heir in 133 BC, he bequeathed the whole of Pergamon to Rome in order to prevent a civil war.

Roman

Not everyone in Pergamon accepted Rome’s rule. Aristonicus, who claimed to be Attalus’ brother as well as the son of Eumenes II, an earlier king, led a revolt among the lower classes with the help of Blossius, a famous Stoic philosopher. Aristonicus took the regal name Eumenes III. For a period he enjoyed success, defeating and killing the Roman consul P. Licinius Crassus and his army. However, his revolt was put down in 129 BC by the consul M. Perperna, and Aristonicus was executed in Rome. After this, Pergamon was divided by Perperna’s successor, M’. Aquillius, among Rome, Pontus, and Cappadocia.

Pergamon was briefly the capital of the Roman province of Asia, before the capital was transferred to Ephesus.

After a slow decline, the city was favored by several imperial initiatives under Hadrian (117 – 138). It was granted the title of metropolis and as a result of this an ambitious building program was carried out: massive temples, a stadium, a theatre, a huge forum and an amphitheatre were constructed. In addition, at the city limits the shrine to Asclepius (the god of healing) was expanded into a lavish spa. This sanctuary grew in fame and was considered one of the most famous therapeutic and healing centers of the Roman world. Galen, after Hippocrates the most famous physician of antiquity, was born at Pergamon and received his early training at the Asclepeion.

Pergamon reached the height of its greatness under Roman Imperial rule and was home to about 200,000 inhabitants. The city was an early seat of Christianity and was granted a bishopric by the 2nd century.

The city suffered badly during the third century and was badly damaged by an earthquake in 262 and was sacked by the Goths shortly after.

The Library of Pergamon was renowned, and second only to the Library of Alexandria, although not approaching Alexandria in scholarship.