[Leica] IMG: Griffin

[john.nebel at csdco.com (John Nebel)]

Abdera tetradrachm 390-360 BC

<http://photos.csd.net/abdera.html>

Herodotus I, 168: "for as soon as Harpagos took their wall with a mound, 
they 
embarked in their ships and sailed straightway for Thrace; and there they 
founded the city of Abdera"

The badge of the polis of Abdera is the griffin, a beast which combines the 
characteristics of the  strongest land animal with the strongest creature of 
the 
air.  It has the  body, rear paws, and tail of a lion, the wings and head of 
an 
eagle, and forefeet with talons rather than claws. Abdera was settled by 
refugees from Teos desiring freedom after the Persians had invaded and 
conquered 
their polis. Teos's coinage had a griffin on the obverse, and Abdera wished 
to 
show its relationship with its mother city by sporting a similar badge, 
simultaneously distinguishing the coinages as its griffin faces left, while 
Teos's faces right.

Abdera's mythical founder was Herakles who named the city after his fallen 
friend Abderus, the coin reflects this founding by depicting Herakles on the 
reverse. He has his club resting on his knee and is using his cloak, the 
skin of 
the Nemean lion to cover the rock on which he sits.

The coin's inscriptions are ????, Abdera, and ??? ???????, the magistrate 
upon 
the time, Philados.

Why Teos used a griffin as it's badge is speculative, and one reference 
refers 
back to Abdera, which is circular.  However, from coinage, it's clear that 
Teos 
had a source of gold, since early on they made coins of electrum, a man-made 
mixture of gold and silver.  In myth, griffins are the guardians of gold, 
and 
perhaps that is the reason for the choice, a guard for their gold mines.  
One 
speculation is that a very long ago miners looking for gold uncovered a 
triceratops skeleton, and hence when it was imaginarily fleshed out it 
became 
the guardian of gold as the griffin.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triceratops>