THESSALONICA in MACEDONIA 187BC Dionysus Pegasus RARE Ancient Greek Coin i57540

Item: i57540

Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Greek city of

Macedonia
Bronze 20mm (9.90 grams) Struck circa 187-31 B.C.

Reference: Moushmov 6656; SNG Cop 351
Head of Dionysus right.
ΘEΣ-ΣΑΛ-ΟΝΙΚHΣ  
to left, right and beneath Pegasus rearing right, grain ear below.

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Authenticity.

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
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
.

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.

The city Thessalonica in Macedonia

was founded around

315 BC
by the

King 

Cassander of Macedon
, on or near the site of the ancient town of

Therma
and 

twenty-six other local villages. He named it after his wife

Thessalonike

, a half-sister of

Alexander the Great

. She gained her name (“victory of Thessalians”: Gk

“victory”) from her father,

Philip II

, to commemorate her birth on the day of his gaining a victory over 

the

Phocians

, who were defeated with the help of

Thessalian

horsemen, the best in Greece at that time. Thessaloniki developed 

rapidly and as early as the

2nd 

century BC
the first walls were built, forming a large square. It was an 

autonomous part of the Kingdom of

Macedon

, with its own parliament where the King was represented and could 

interfere in the city’s domestic affairs.

 Roman 

era

After the fall of the kingdom of Macedon in

168 BC
, 

Thessalonica became a city of the

Roman Republic

. It grew to be an important trade-hub located on the

Via 

Egnatia
, the

Roman road

connecting

Byzantium
 

(later

Constantinople

), with

Dyrrhachium
 

(now Durrës
in

Albania
), and 

facilitating trade between Europe and Asia. The city became the capital of one 

of the four Roman districts of Macedonia; it kept its privileges but was ruled 

by a praetor
 

and had a Roman garrison, while for a short time in the

1st 

century BC
, all the Greek provinces came under Thessalonica (the Latin form 

of the name). Due to the city’s key commercial importance, a spacious harbour 

was built by the Romans, the famous Burrowed Harbour (Σκαπτός Λιμήν) that 

accommodated the town’s trade up to the eighteenth century; later, with the help 

of silt deposits from the river

Axios
, it was 

reclaimed as land and the port built beyond it. Remnants of the old harbour’s 

docks can be found in the present day under Odos Frangon Street, near the 

Catholic Church.

Thessaloniki’s

acropolis
, 

located in the northern hills, was built in

55 BC
after

Thracian

raids in the city’s outskirts, for security reasons.

The city had a

Jewish

colony, established during the

first 

century
, and was to be an early centre of

Christianity

. On his second missionary journey,

Paul

of Tarsus

, born a Hellenized Israelite, preached in the city’s synagogue, 

the chief synagogue of the Jews in that part of Thessaloniki, and laid the 

foundations of a church. Other Jews opposed to Paul drove him from the city, and 

he fled to

Veroia

. Paul wrote two of his

epistles

to the Christian community at Thessalonica, the

First Epistle to the Thessalonians

and the

Second Epistle to the Thessalonians

.

Thessaloníki acquired a patron saint,

St. Demetrius

, in 306. He is credited with a number of miracles that saved 

the city, and was the Roman

Proconsul
 

of Greece under the anti-Christian emperor

Maximian
, 

later martyred at a Roman prison where today lies the

Church of St. Demetrius

, first built by the Roman sub-prefect of

Illyricum

Leontios in 463. Other important remains from this period include 

the

Arch and Tomb of Galerius

, located near the centre of the modern city.