Archaios | Tetradrachm Kos, Islands off Caria, Herakles Crab Club

Description: Archaios Numismatics Description: Greek Silver Tetradrachm coin from Kos, one of the Islands off of Caria , Circa 5th Century B.C. Obverse: Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin headdress Reverse: Crab, with club below; [ΚΩΙΟΝ] above, ΔIΩN below Mint: Kos, Caria Size: 22 mm Weight: 14.35 g Ref: BMC pg. 195, 14 & Pl. XXX, 8; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG Keckmann -. Provenance: ex-Roma Numismatics Condition:Very Fine. Slightly porous, some encrustation to rev. Rare. As always, Please use the Pictures as your judge as grading is subjective. Notes: Kos (or Cos) was an important island in ancient Caria. According to tradition the earliest Greek inhabitants of Cos came from Epidaurus, bringing with them the worship of Asklepios, for which the island was afterwards celebrated. Herakles is also an appropriate type on the coins of a city which was a member of the Dorian Pentapolis. The origin of the Crab as the special emblem of Cos is unexplained. The fact that it is frequently accompanied, on coins, with the Heraklean club, while on certain coins of Imperial times (B. M. C., Car., Pl. XXXIII. 4, 5) it is seen at the feet of Herakles himself, has been cited to prove its connection with the cultus of Herakles. This is, however, doubtful. Today Kos is part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeastern Aegean Sea, off the Anatolian coast of Turkey. Kos is the third largest island of the Dodecanese by area, after Rhodes and Karpathos; it has a population of 33,388 (circa 2011), making it the second most populous of the Dodecanese, after Rhodes. The island measures 40 by 8 kilometres (25 by 5 miles), and is 4 km (2 miles) from the coast of the ancient region of Caria in Turkey. The name Kos is first attested to in the Iliad, and has been in continuous use since. In Homer's Iliad, a contingent of Koans fought for the Greeks in the Trojan War. In classical mythology the founder-king of Kos was Merops, hence "Meropian Kos" is included in the archaic Delian amphictyony listed in the 7th-century Homeric hymn to Delian Apollo; the island was visited by Heracles. The ancient physician Hippocrates is thought to have been born on Kos, and in the center of the town there now exists the Plane Tree of Hippocrates, a dream temple where the physician is traditionally supposed to have taught. The limbs of the now elderly tree are supported by scaffolding. The small city is also home to the International Hippocratic Institute and the Hippocratic Museum dedicated to him. Near the Institute are the ruins of Asklepieion, where Herodicus taught Hippocrates medicine. The island was originally colonised by the Carians. The Dorians invaded it in the 11th century BC, establishing a Dorian colony with a large contingent of settlers from Epidaurus, whose Asclepius cult made their new home famous for its sanatoria. The other chief sources of the island's wealth lay in its wines and, in later days, in its silk manufacture. Its early history–as part of the religious-political amphictyony that included Lindos, Kamiros, Ialysos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus, the Dorian Hexapolis (hexapolis means six cities in Greek), is obscure. At the end of the 6th century, Kos fell under Achaemenid domination but rebelled after the Greek victory at the Battle of Mycale in 479. During the Greco-Persian Wars, before it twice expelled the Persians, it was ruled by Persian-appointed tyrants, but as a rule it seems to have been under oligarchic government. In the 5th century, it joined the Delian League, and, after the revolt of Rhodes, it served as the chief Athenian station in the south-eastern Aegean (411–407). In 366 BC, a democracy was instituted. In 366 BC, the capital was transferred from Astypalaia (at the west end of the island near the modern village of Kefalos) to the newly built town of Kos, laid out in a Hippodamian grid. After helping to weaken Athenian power, in the Social War (357-355 BC), it fell for a few years to the king Mausolus of Caria. Proximity to the east gave the island first access to imported silk thread. Aristotle mentions silk weaving conducted by the women of the island. Silk production of garments was conducted in large factories by women slaves. In the Hellenistic period, Kos attained the zenith of its prosperity. Its alliance was valued by the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt, who used it as a naval outpost to oversee the Aegean. As a seat of learning, it arose as a provincial branch of the museum of Alexandria, and became a favorite resort for the education of the princes of the Ptolemaic dynasty. During the Hellenistic age, there was a medical school. Some Excerpts From Head, Hist. 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Price: 1150 USD

Location: Seattle, Washington

End Time: 2024-11-11T21:28:50.000Z

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