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<p>[QUOTE="zumbly, post: 5471339, member: 57495"]Here's one of my last purchases of 2020, which arrived late on New Year's Eve. It's a small Roman provincial of Corinth with the city's familiar pegasos on one side, and Melicertes-Palaemon (Melikertes-Palaimon) lying on a dolphin on the other. </p><p><br /></p><p>In one mythological tradition, Melicertes and his brother Learchus are the sons of Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and Athamas, a Boeotian king. Ino incurs the ire of Hera by nursing the infant Dionysus (Zeus's bastard son by Ino's sister Semele), and in her rage, the goddess inflicts on Athamas a madness that makes him want to kill his own family. After witnessing Athamas slaughter Learchus, Ino flees in terror with Melicertes, ultimately jumping off a cliff into the sea with him to escape her crazed husband. Both are thereafter transfigured into sea deities, with Melicertes's body borne ashore by a dolphin and placed under a pine tree at the Isthmus of Corinth. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1238354[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="4"><i>The Fury of Athamas</i> by John Flaxman (1755-1826)</font></p><p><br /></p><p>In his Description of Greece, Pausanias tells us that Melicertes's body was thereafter recovered by his uncle, Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, who also established in his honour the Isthmian Games, one of four great Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece (along with the Nemean, Pythian and Olympic Games). Pausanias goes on to describe a small circular temple dedicated to Palaemon at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia, the remains of which were discovered in 1956 by a University of Chicago archaeological excavation. The temple features on provincial coins of Corinth struck during Hadrian's reign (another type now on my want list!).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1238355[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="4">An imagined view of the Temple of Poseidon with the smaller Temple of Palaemon to its left, taken from <a href="https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/isthmia/files/2014/12/SD_Athenaia_4__263_274__Gebhard.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/isthmia/files/2014/12/SD_Athenaia_4__263_274__Gebhard.pdf" rel="nofollow"><i>Pausanias at the Isthmian Sanctuary</i></a>, by E.R. Gebhard. </font></p><p><br /></p><p>Please feel free to share your coins of Corinth, Melicertes, or any other dolphin-riders. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1238356[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>CORINTHIA, Corinth. Pseudo-autonomous issue.</b></p><p>AE16. 3.32g, 16.5mm. CORINTHIA, Corinth, time of Tiberius, AD 32-33 (?). BCD Corinth 397 (same dies); RPC I 1170. O: Pegasos flying right; COR below. R: Melicertes-Palaemon, nude, lying on dolphin swimming right.</p><p><i>Ex Auctiones E-auction 50 (11 Sep 2016), Lot 105</i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="zumbly, post: 5471339, member: 57495"]Here's one of my last purchases of 2020, which arrived late on New Year's Eve. It's a small Roman provincial of Corinth with the city's familiar pegasos on one side, and Melicertes-Palaemon (Melikertes-Palaimon) lying on a dolphin on the other. In one mythological tradition, Melicertes and his brother Learchus are the sons of Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and Athamas, a Boeotian king. Ino incurs the ire of Hera by nursing the infant Dionysus (Zeus's bastard son by Ino's sister Semele), and in her rage, the goddess inflicts on Athamas a madness that makes him want to kill his own family. After witnessing Athamas slaughter Learchus, Ino flees in terror with Melicertes, ultimately jumping off a cliff into the sea with him to escape her crazed husband. Both are thereafter transfigured into sea deities, with Melicertes's body borne ashore by a dolphin and placed under a pine tree at the Isthmus of Corinth. [ATTACH=full]1238354[/ATTACH] [SIZE=4][I]The Fury of Athamas[/I] by John Flaxman (1755-1826)[/SIZE] In his Description of Greece, Pausanias tells us that Melicertes's body was thereafter recovered by his uncle, Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, who also established in his honour the Isthmian Games, one of four great Panhellenic Games of Ancient Greece (along with the Nemean, Pythian and Olympic Games). Pausanias goes on to describe a small circular temple dedicated to Palaemon at the Sanctuary of Poseidon at Isthmia, the remains of which were discovered in 1956 by a University of Chicago archaeological excavation. The temple features on provincial coins of Corinth struck during Hadrian's reign (another type now on my want list!). [ATTACH=full]1238355[/ATTACH] [SIZE=4]An imagined view of the Temple of Poseidon with the smaller Temple of Palaemon to its left, taken from [URL='https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/isthmia/files/2014/12/SD_Athenaia_4__263_274__Gebhard.pdf'][I]Pausanias at the Isthmian Sanctuary[/I][/URL], by E.R. Gebhard. [/SIZE] Please feel free to share your coins of Corinth, Melicertes, or any other dolphin-riders. [ATTACH=full]1238356[/ATTACH] [B]CORINTHIA, Corinth. Pseudo-autonomous issue.[/B] AE16. 3.32g, 16.5mm. CORINTHIA, Corinth, time of Tiberius, AD 32-33 (?). BCD Corinth 397 (same dies); RPC I 1170. O: Pegasos flying right; COR below. R: Melicertes-Palaemon, nude, lying on dolphin swimming right. [I]Ex Auctiones E-auction 50 (11 Sep 2016), Lot 105[/I][/QUOTE]
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