Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/06/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Thanks for the interesting discourse! Beautiful depiction of a griffin on the coin - just the right mix of unbridled power and royal arrogance! Cheers Jayanand On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 3:22 AM, John Nebel <john.nebel at csdco.com> wrote: > 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> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information