Skepsis in Troas 350BC Ancient Greek Coin Pegasus winged horse Fir tree i31799

Item: i31799

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

Greek city of Skepsis in Troas
Silver 15mm (3.25 grams) Struck circa 400 B.C.
Reference: Sear 4134 var.
Forepart of winged horse right, body terminating in horn.
Σ – K either side of fir-tree; all within linear
square.

 You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

 

Pegasus, as the horse of Muses, was put on the roof of
Poznań
Opera House
(Max
Littmann, 1910)

Pegasus  is one
of the best known fantastical creatures in
Greek mythologyy
. 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.

Miletus (mī lē’ təs) (Ancient

Greek: Μίλητος, literally

transliterated

Milētos,

Latin

Miletus) was an

ancient

city on the western coast of

Anatolia

(in what is now

Aydin Province

, Turkey

), near the mouth of the

Maeander River

in ancient

Caria
. Evidence

of first settlement at the site has been made inaccessible by the rise of sea

level and deposition of sediments from the Maeander. The first available

evidence is of the

Neolithic
.

In the early and middle

Bronze age

the settlement came under

Minoan

influence. Legend has it that an influx of Cretans occurred

displacing the indigenous

Leleges
. The

site was renamed Miletus after a place in

Crete
.

The Late Bronze Age, 13th century BCE, saw the arrival of

Luwian language

speakers from south central Anatolia calling themselves the

Carians
.

Later in that century the first Greeks arrived, calling themselves

Achaeans
.

The city at that time rebelled against the

Hittite Empire

. After the fall of that empire the city was destroyed in the

12th century BCE and starting about 1000 BCE was resettled extensively by the

Ionian Greeks
.

Legend offers an Ionian foundation event sponsored by a founder named Neleus

from the

Peloponnesus

.

The

Greek Dark Ages

were a time of Ionian settlement and consolidation in an

alliance called the

Ionian League

. The

Archaic Period

of Greece began with a sudden and brilliant flash of art and

philosophy on the coast of

Anatolia
.

In the

6th Century BC

, Miletus was the site of origin of the Greek philosophical

(and scientific) tradition, when

Thales
,

followed by

Anaximander

and

Anaximines

(known collectively, to modern scholars, as the

Milesian School

) began to speculate about the material constitution of the

world, and to propose speculative naturalistic (as opposed to traditional,

supernatural) explanations for various natural phenomena.

//

 Geography

The ruins lies about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of

Akkoy
.

The city also once possessed a

harbor
, before

it was clogged by

alluvium

brought by the

Meander

River. There is a Great Harbour Monument where it is believed that

Paul stopped by and sat on its steps, on the way back to Jerusalem by boat. He

may have met the Ephesian Elders and then headed out to the beach to bid them

farewell, recorded in the book of Acts.

 Geology

During the

Pleistocene

epoch the Miletus region was submerged in the

Aegean Sea
.

It subsequently emerged slowly, the sea reaching a low level of about 130 meters

(430 ft) below present level at about 18,000 BP.

The site of Miletus was part of the mainland.

A gradual rise brought a level of about 1.75 meters (5 ft 9 in) below present

at about 5500 BP, creating several

karst

block islands of limestone, the location of the first settlements at

Miletus. At about 1500 BCE the karst shifted due to small crustal movements and

the islands consolidated into a peninsula. Since then the sea has risen 1.75 m

but the peninsula has been surrounded by sediment from the

Maeander

river and is now land-locked. Sedimentation of the harbor began at

about 1000 BCE, and by 300 CE Lake Bafa had been created.^[1]

 History

 Neolithic

The earliest available archaeological evidence indicates that the islands on

which Miletus was originally placed were inhabited by a

Neolithic

population in the 2nd half of the 4th millennium BCE (3500–3000 BCE).^[2]

Pollen in core samples from Lake Bafa in the

Latmus

region inland of Miletus suggests that a lightly-grazed climax forest prevailed

in the

Maeander

valley, otherwise untenanted. Sparse Neolithic settlements were

made at springs, numerous and sometimes geothermal in this karst, rift valley

topography. The islands offshore were settled perhaps for their strategic

significance at the mouth of the Maeander, a route inland protected by

escarpments. The grazers in the valley may have belonged to them, but the

location looked to the sea.

 Bronze

Age

Recorded history at Miletus begins with the records of the

Hittite Empire

in the Late Bronze Age. The prehistoric archaeology of the

Early and Middle Bronze Age portrays a city heavily influenced by society and

events elsewhere in the Aegean, rather than inland.

 Cretan

period

Beginning at about 1900 BCE artifacts of the

Minoan civilization

acquired by trade arrived at Miletus.^[2]

For some centuries the location received a strong impulse from that

civilization, an archaeological fact that tends to support but not necessarily

confirm the founding legend—that is, a population influx, from

Crete
. According

to Strabo
:^[3]

Ephorus says: Miletus was first founded and fortified above the sea by

Cretans, where the Miletus of olden times is now situated, being settled by

Sarpedon, who brought colonists from the Cretan Miletus and named the city

after that Miletus, the place formerly being in possession of the

Leleges
.

The legends recounted as history by the ancient historians and geographers

are perhaps the strongest; the late mythographers have nothing historically

significant to relate.^[4]

 Luwian

and Greek period

Miletus is first mentioned in the

Hittite

Annals of Mursili II

as Millawanda. In ca. 1320 BC, Millawanda supported the

rebellion of Uhha-Ziti

of Arzawa

. Mursili ordered his generals

Mala-Ziti

and

Gulla

to raid Millawanda, and they proceeded to burn parts of it (damage

from LHIIIA:2 has been found on-site: Christopher Mee, Anatolia and the

Aegean in the Late Bronze Age, p. 142). In addition the town was fortified

according to a Hittite plan (ibid, p. 139).

Millawanda is then mentioned in the “Tawagalawa

letter“, part of a series including the

Manapa-Tarhunta letter

and the

Milawata letter

, all of which are less securely dated. The Tawagalawa letter

notes that Milawata had a governor,

Atpa

, who was under the jurisdiction of “Ahhiyawa” (a growing state probably

in

LHIIIB

Mycenaean Greece

); and that the town of

Atriya

was under Milesian jurisdiction. The Manapa-Tarhunta letter also

mentions Atpa. Together the two letters tell that the adventurer

Piyama-Radu

had humiliated Manapa-Tarhunta before Atpa (in addition to other

misadventures); a Hittite king then chased Piyama-Radu into Millawanda and, in

the Tawagalawa letter, requested Piyama-Radu’s extradition to

Hatti
.

The Milawata letter mentions a joint expedition by the Hittite king and a

Luwiyan

vassal (probably

Kupanta-Kurunta

of Mira) against Milawata (apparently its new name), and

notes that Milawata (and Atriya) were now under Hittite control.

Homer
records

that during the time of the

Trojan War
,

it was a

Carian

city (Iliad,

book II).

In the last stage of LHIIIB, the citadel of

Pylos
counted

among its female slaves “Mil[w]atiai”, women from Miletus.

During the collapse of Bronze Age civilisation, Miletus was burnt again,

presumably by the

Sea

Peoples
.

 Dark

Age

Mythographers told that

Neleus
son of

Codrus of Athens had come to Miletus after the return of the Heraclids (so,

during the Greek Dark Age). The Ionians killed the men of Miletus and married

their widows.

 Archaic

period

The city of Miletus became one of the

twelve

Ionian

cities of

Asia Minor

.

Miletus was one of the cities involved in the

Lelantine War

of the 8th century

BCE
.

Miletus was an important center of philosophy and science, producing such men

as Thales
,

Anaximander

and

Anaximenes

.

By the 6th century BCE, Miletus had earned a maritime empire but brushed up

against powerful Lydia

at home.

When

Cyrus

of Persia defeated

Croesus
of

Lydia, Miletus fell under

Persian

rule. In 502 BC, the

Ionian Revolt

began in

Naxos
;

and when Miletus’s tyrant

Aristagoras

failed to recapture the island, Aristagoras joined the revolt as

its leader. Persia quashed this rebellion and punished Miletus in such a fashion

that the whole of Greece mourned it. A year afterward,

Phrynicus

produced the tragedy The Capture of Miletus in Athens. The

Athenians fined him for reminding them of their loss.

 Classical

period

Its gridlike layout, planned by

Hippodamos

, became the basic layout for

Roman

cities.

In 479 BC, the Greeks decisively defeated the Persians at the Greek mainland,

and Miletus was freed of Persian rule. During this time several other cities

were formed by

Milesian

settlers, spanning across what is now Turkey and even as far as

Crimea
.

The eponymous founder of the bawdy Miletian school of literature

Aristides of Miletus

taught here.

 Alexandrian

period

In 334 BC, the city was liberated from Persian rule by

Alexander the Great

.

 Roman

period

The

New

Testament
mentions Miletus as the site where the Apostle

Paul

in 57 CE met with the elders of the

church

of Ephesus

near the close of his Third Missionary Journey, as recorded in

Acts of the Apostles

(Acts 20:15–38). It is believed that Paul stopped by

Great Harbour Monument and sat on its steps. He may have met the Ephesian elders

there and then bid them farewell on the nearby beach. Miletus is also the city

where Paul left

Trophimus
,

one of his travelling companions, to recover from an illness (2

Timothy 4:20). Because this cannot be the same visit as Acts 20 (in which

Trophimus accompanied Paul all the way to Jerusalem, according to Acts 21:29),

Paul must have made at least one additional visit to Miletus, perhaps as late as

65 or 66 CE. Paul’s previous successful three-year ministry in nearby

Ephesus

resulted in the evangelization of the entire province of Asia (see Acts 19:10,

20;

1 Corinthians

16:9). It is safe to assume that at least by the time of the

apostle’s second visit to Miletus, a fledgling Christian community was

established in Miletus. (The rendering of the

King James Version

of

Malta
as “Melita”

in Acts 28:1 has created confusion between Malta and Miletus among some readers

of the Bible.)

 Byzantine

period

During the

Byzantine

age Miletus became a residence for archbishops. The small

Byzantine castle called Castro Palation located on the hill beside the city, was

built at this time.

 Turkish

rule

Seljuk Turks

conquered the city in the 14th century A.D. and used Miletus as

a port to trade with

Venice
.

Finally,

Ottomans

utilized the city as a harbour during their rule in

Anatolia
.

As the harbour became silted up, the city was abandoned. Today the ruins of city

lie some 10 kilometres from the sea.

 Archaeological

excavations

The first excavations in Miletus were conducted by the French archaeologist

Olivier Rayet in 1873, followed by the German archaeologist

Theodor Wiegand

. Excavations, however, were interrupted several times by

wars and various other events. Today, excavations are organized by the

Ruhr University

of

Bochum
,

Germany
.

One remarkable artifact recovered from the city during the first excavations

of the 19th century, the

Market Gate of Miletus

, was transported piece by piece to

Germany
and

reassembled. It is currently exhibited at the

Pergamon museum

in

Berlin
. The

main collection of artifacts resides in the Miletus Museum in

Didim
,

Aydın
, serving

since 1973.

 Colonies

of Miletus

Pliny the Elder

mentions 90 colonies founded by Miletus in his

Natural History

(5.112).

• Apolonia
• Odessos

• Tomis

• Histria

• Tyras

• Olbia

• Panticapaeum

• Theodosia
• Tanais
• Phanagoria

• Pityus

• Dioscurias

• Phasis

• Trapezunt

• Amisos

• Sinope

 Notable

people

• Thales

  (c. 624 BC–c. 546 BC)

  Pre-Socratic

  philosopher

• Anaximander

  (c. 610 BC–c. 546 BC) Pre-Socratic philosopher

• Anaximenes

  (c. 585 BC–c. 525 BC) Pre-Socratic philosopher

• Hippodamus of Miletus

  (c. 498—408 BC) urban planner

• Aspasia

  (c. 470–400 BC) courtesan , and mistress of

  Pericles
  ,

  was born here

• Aristides of Miletus

  , writer

• Hecataeus of Miletus

  , historian

• Hesychius

  (6th century) Greek chronicler and biographer

• Isidore

  (4th–5th century) Greek architect

• Aristagoras

  (5th–6th century) Tyrant of Miletus

• Leucippus

  (first half of 5th century BC) Philosopher and originator of

  Atomism (his association with Miletus is traditional, but disputed)