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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Jochen1, post: 3543527, member: 103829&quot;]Dear Friends of ancient mythology!</p><p><br /></p><p>The motif of this coin is alluding to the founder myth of Nikaia. This myth belongs to the huge circle of myths around Dionysos too. I&#039;m referring here to that lexikon, which already Goethe has used for his tragedy &#039;Faust II&#039;, the &#039;Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon&#039; from Benjamin Hederich, Leipzig 1770.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Coin:</b></p><p>Bithynia, Nikaia, Severus Alexander, AD 222-235</p><p>AE 25, 9.18g, 0°</p><p>Obv.: M AVP CEVH - AΛEZANΔPOC</p><p>Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r.</p><p>Rev.: NI - [K] - AIEΩ - N</p><p>Dionysos, draped, with ivy wreath, holding thyrsos, std. r., head turned l. to a female figure (probably Nikaia), stg. frontal, head with chignon r., holding wreath in r. hand.</p><p>Ref.: SNG von Aulock 606; Rec. Gen. 600, pl. 82, 27 (rev. only)</p><p>very rare, about VF</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942035[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The description of this coin has caused me difficulties. On the internet I did not find a reference and therefore also no description. Dionysos is clear because of his thyrsos. This is the only ribboned staff I know. There remains the question of the female figure. First Artemis comes to mind.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, she usually stands next to her brother Apollo. In addition, her attributes, bow, arrow, dog or stag are missing. Also the wreath is untypical for her. The clothes don&#039;t suit her either. According to the story of Dionysos and Nikaia, which Nonnos tells in his Dionysakia, it can only be the latter. The Dionysiaka of Nonnos, a Byzantine poet of the 5th century AD, were by the way the last great epic of antiquity.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Mythology:</b></p><p>The nymph Nikaia (Lat. Nicaea) was the daughter of the Phrygian river god Sangarios and the goddess Kybele (Memnon ap phot. p.383). She was of exquisite beauty, but at the same time a passionate huntress who like to stay in the woods and between the mountains (Nonni Dionys. XV. 170 sqq.). Here Hymnos, a herdsman of this region, fall in love to her, followed her and watched her closely (Ib. 204). But his prayers were not answered and because he won&#039;t stop being after her she finally became angry and shot him with one of her arrows (Ib. 362). This murder Eros swore to avenge and he kept his word truely. When she was heated once by the hunt and was washing herself in a stream, Eros led Dionysos to her so that he could see her nude. At the same time he wounded his heart (Id. XVI. 1 sqq.). But Dionysos found as much approval by her as Hymnos and she threatened him with whose fate (Ib. 156.). But he has turned a river some time before into wine (Id. XIV fin.). She came thursty by her hunt to that river, got drunk and fall asleep. Dionysos, who has followed her all the time, now enjoyed what he couldn&#039;t get before (Id. XVI. 282). As soon as she regarded her accident she tried to kill her raper. But because that was impossible she hung herself (Ib. 391). But first she gave birth to a daughter of him who was called Telete and Dionysos built up a city called Nikaia after her (Ib. in fin.). Telete became a devotee of him.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is told too that he has also a son Satyrios by Nikaia. If that would be true then he stands for the male principle and Telete for the female principle of the Dionysos cult - a so-called &#039;<i>Koure</i>&#039; in his train. As personification of the initiations rites (<i>telete</i> = initiation) she is closely connected to Orpheus. On Helikon, the &#039;Mount of Willow&#039;, Pausanias saw a statue of Orpheus with Telete at his side. And in Polygnotos&#039; great fresco of the Underworld at Delphoi Orpheus was painted leaning against a willow and touching its branches with his hands, just as Telete in the relief of Loukou seated beside the tree close up against its foliage. Both he and she derived fertility from contact with the sacred tree. the relief from Loukou was probably set up over the grave of an Orphic votary.</p><p><br /></p><p>From the 2nd century AD coins of Nicaea show Nikaia as city-gddess with mural crown.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Note:</b></p><p>By the way, Nicaea is the city of the famous council of 325, where our Easter was fixed (on the 1st Sunday after the first new moon in spring!) and where the infamous dispute about the figure of Jesus took place, namely &#039;<i>homoousios</i>&#039; (= equal) or &#039;<i>homoiousios</i>&#039; (= similar). It is well known that the Homoousians won, which cost hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Homoiousians, e.g. the Arians, their lives!</p><p><br /></p><p>The picture (from Wikipedia) shows the Lefke Gate, which belongs to the city wall of Nicaea.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]942036[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sources: </b></p><p>(1) Memnos of Herakleia</p><p>(2) Nonnus,Dionysiaka</p><p>(3) Der kleine Pauly</p><p>(4) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mythologisches Lexikon, 1770</p><p><br /></p><p>And a remark about collecting provincial coins: Where are Imperial Coins that have a similar Background?</p><p><br /></p><p>Best regards[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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