The coin: Thessaly, Halos, 400-344 BC AE 15 (Dichalkon?), 2.33g, 14.57mm, 315° obv. Head of Zeus Laphystios, diademed, l. rev. ALE - W[N] Phrixos, nude, with waving chlamys behind, on ram flying r., hanging on its horns; below 3 waves (outside this flan) ref. Rogers 240 var. rare, VF Note: This type is known too with the depiction of Helle. But she is always draped (HN). On the coins I have seen Helle always std. side saddle. Phrixos and Helle are the main coin motives of Halos. Mythology: Father of Phrixos was Athamas, son of Aiolos. He was King in Orchomenos in Boiotia. With his wife Nephele he had 2 children, Phrixos and Helle. Later he devorced Nephele and married Ino, daughter of Kadmos. With Ino he had 2 children too, Learchos and Melikertes. Ino hated the children of Nephele and sent a drougth over the land (or has persuaded the women of the land to roast the seed to make the land infertile). To end this misery a herald was sent to the oracle of Delphi. Ino bribed the herald to falsify the oracle, so that now Phrixos and Helle should be sacrificed to end the drought. Another variant is that Ino has fallen in love to her stepson Phrixos, but that he spurns her. Thus a great hate arose in Ino and she wished his death (Nat, Com. Mythol. lib.I.VI.c.9). She achieved that he should be sacrificed. That is the classical Potiphar motive. Hyginus in his Fabulae tells that Phrixos has presented himself as sacrifice. Thus the malice of his stepmother has been detected although Dionysos has tried to protect her. Phrixos and Helle simulated a blinding and got lost in a wood. Anyhow, their mother Nephele sent Chrysomele to them, a ram with golden fleece, with the order to bring them to Kolchis. This ram, a gift of Hermes, is said to have been a son of Poseidon and was able to speak. Together with his sister Helle, who want to stay with him, Phrixos mounted the magic animal. When they were just over the sea between the Thracian Chersones and the Sigaian promontory, Helle fell down from the ram into the sea and drowned. According to her this part of the sea was called Hellespont, that means 'Sea of Helle'. Later Helle should have appeared as Sea Nymph to the Argonauts. She is said to have married Poseidon and has become a goddess. Phrixos luckily arrived in Kolchis. There he sacrificed the ram - according to some authors on behest of the ram - to Zeus Phrixios and donated the fleece to Aietes, king of Kolchis. He hung it at a tree of the grove of Ares and gave Phrixos his daughter Chalkiope as wife. Apollodor reports that first he has come to Dipsakos, son of Phyllis, where he has sacrificed the ram to Zeus Laphystios. The fleece later played an important role in the myth of the Argonauts. Zeus put the ram as Aries to the sky. The later fate of Phrixos: Diodoros Sikolos reports that Phrixos later has left Kolchis and has returned back to Greece where he has taken the kingdom of his father Athamas. In contrast Hyginus tells that he was killed by Aietes who feared that he strove for the throne. He is said to have several children with his wife Chalkiope whose names were reported variously: Argos, Phrontis, Melas and Kylindros, or Argos, Melas, Phrontis and Kytiloros, as well as Argos, Melas, Katis and Soros. Only those have left Kolchis and set off for Greece. But underway they were shipwrecked and could rescue themselves on the island of Areteias. There they were found by the Argonauts who took them as guides back to Kolchis (Apollonius). The fate of Athamas: Athamas and Ino were chased by Hera. Particulars can be found in the articles about Melikertes and about Ino-Leukothea in this Mythology Thread. Weighed down with blood guilt Athamas fled from Boiotia and came to Thessaly, where he founded the city of Halos and took Themisto, daughter of Hypseus, as his wife. This myth was worked up by Euripides to an intrigues play where by the intrigues of Ino he let kill the children of Themisto by her own mother. This play based on the oral tradition that Athamas from the beginning was king of Halos, situated in the 'Athamantic realms' of the southern Thessaly. According to this myth Athamas himself should have been sacrificed to Zeus and - referring to Herodot - was rescued by the arrival of his grand-child, son of Phrixos, from Kolchis, or - referring to Sophokles - by Herakles. Both plays are lost. Notes: (1) Nephele, wife of Athamas, is not Nephele, who by Ixion became the mother of the Centaurs. Often they were confused, so by Kerenyi and Hederich. (2) Nat. Com. Mythol. = Natalis Comitis Mythologiae. Natalis Conti (AD 1520-1582), a Venetian scientist, wrote a mythographical work of 10 volumes. . Background: The first part of the myth plays in Orchomenos in Boiotia where Athamas was king. Here he tried to sacrifice Phrixos and Helle to Zeus Laphystios. Laphystios is the name of a mountain near Orchomenos. After his madness and the death of Ino and Melikertes (take a look at the referring articles in this thread!) he was ordered by the oracle of Delphi to go to Thessaly . where he founded the city of Halos. Halos was already mentioned by Homer as city in the Phthiotis, in the Athamantic plane at the river Othrys, situated at the western shore of the Pagasaian Gulf. Athamas took the veneration of Zeus Laphystios from Orchomenos to Halos, which then became the main centre of the cult of Zeus Laphystios. Zeus Laphystios was an old, dark storm and weather god with archaic rites connected probably to human sacrifices too. Laphystios is 'the Devourer' A sanctuary is mentioned already by Herodot 7, 192, but until now no inscriptions are found (Pauly). The core of the myth is the aition of the Anamanthic custom. This custom consists in the tradition that in Halos always the oldest descendents of Athamas were sacrificed to Zeus Laphystios when they entered a particular building in the city. Here we find motives of archaic rites which consist in sacrificing the sacral king to preserve the fertility of the land (von Ranke-Graves), The sacrifice of the ram then can be seen as replacing the human sacrifices by animal offerings. Zeus hated human sacrifices! Helle is the eponym of the Hellespont. The marriage with Poseidon and the birth of several children are later inventions. At Val. Flaccus she appears to the Argonauts as sea goddes. Etymology: Halos meant something like barn flour or court, like in Delphi, where it is a praecinctus, a walled area. That would well match the founding myth. A connection with the Greek word for salt - suggested by Tilos - I can't see. Referring to Ranke-Graves Halos should come from Alos, the name of a female servant! Palaiphatos: And again our friend Palaiphatos who - as always - is pouring rationalistic water in our mythological wine, bringing up the following objections: The ram must have been faster than a ship! And the ram must have carried not only two persons but food and drinking too. Then Phrixos has killed the ram ungratefully, who has just rescued him. He has donated the fleece to Aietes as dowry. Has he held his daughter for so worthless? To mask this incredibility it was said that the fleece was of gold. Here is the truth he writes: Krios (Greek = ram) was the administrator of king Athamas of Phthia. When Krios heard that Athamas' 2nd wife intrigued against Phrixos, son of Athamas, he decided to save him. He got a ship, loaded it with valuables, between them a statue, which has been made of gold after Kios (Greek = fleece), mother of Merops and daughter of Helios. Then Phrixos and Helle started to Kolchis. At this voyage Helle became ill and died. But Phrixos came to the river Phasis settled there and married the daughter of Aietes, king of Kolchis. The gold statue he donated as dowry. After the death of Athamas Jason sailed with his ship Argo to Kolchis to get the gold statue of Kios. The Order of the Golden Fleece: When we talk about the Golden Fleece the order of the Golden Fleece should be mentioned. This order was founded in AD 1430 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, to celebrate his marriage with Isabella of Portugal. The task of this knight's order is the protection of the Church. His sign is the picture of a ram fleece hanging on a chain from the neck. Today we have two lines of the order: The Bourbonic in Spain and the Habsburg in Austria. Famous Grand Masters beside the Burgundic and Spain kings were the Habsburg emperors of the German Empire. Known names are the German emperor Wilhelm II and his uncle Edward VIII from England, Otto von Habsburg and Juan Carlos, the recent king of Spain. BTW There is another explanation too. There the order goes back to the miracle of Gideon in the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. History of Art: The flight of the siblings and the fall of Helle were popular themes in ancient art. Strangely they later were only depicted rarely.. On an amphora from the 3rd quarter of the 5th century BC, today in the National Museum in Naples, Phrixos is chased by Ino with a double axe in her raised hand. A Melic relief from the middle of the 5th century BC and an Apulic bowl, both from the Antikensammlung in Berlin, show Phrixos high above the sea at the flank of the ram, clasping at horns and fleece. This is very similar to the depiction on the coin. It could be found too on a pelike (kind of an amphora) as Attic red-figured painting of the Phrixos-Painter, c. 450-400 BC, today in the National Museum Athens. In Berlin stands the Phrixos-Krater, an Apulic volute krater, c. 340 BC., ascribed to the Dareios-Painter. The obv. shows the scene where the sacrifice of Phrixos and Helle is prepaired. Both siblings on the ram are found on a krater from Paestum, middle of 4th century, National Museum Naples, and on a Pompejan wall painting, 1st century AD, Naples, National Museum, and on a mosaic in the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, from the 2nd century AD, where Phrixos stretches out his hand to rescue Helle, who sinks in the waves. From the Early Modern Age I have found only a ceiling painting. It is from the studio of Pinturicchio and was made for the Palazzo of Pandolfo Petrucci in Siena, c.1590, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. I have attached: (1) a pic of the Phrixos-Krater with the sacrificing scene: In the lower centre, all signed with their names, Phrixos is standing, crowning the ram with a wreath. Left beside stands Ino, on his right side Athamas with raised sacrificial knife. Right beside him an aged scholar tells Helle, that not the ram but her brother Phrixos shall be sacrificed. Above a conference of gods is looking down. The 2nd from left is Nephele. At her right side Hermes apparently tells her that her children will be rescued. (2) the pic of the Attic pelike of the Phrixos-Painter from the National Museum Athens. (3) the pic of the Pompejan wall painting from the 1st century AD Sources: (1) Herodot (2) Apollodor, Bibliotheka (3) Apollonius Rhodios, Die Argonautensage (4) Pausanias, Reisen durch Griechenland (5) Euripides: Phrixos (6) Ovid, Metamorphosen (7) Palaiphatos, Unglaubliche Geschichte (griech./deutsch), Reclam 2002 Secondary Literature: (1) Karl Kerenyi, Die Mythologie der Griechen, Band II: Die Heroen-Geschichten, dtv 1966 (2) Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie (auch online) (3) Benjamin Hederich, Gründliches mytologisches Lexikon, Leipzig 1770 (Facsimile) (auch online) (4) Robert von Ranke-Graves, Griechische Mythologie, rororo 2003 (5) Who is who in der Mythologie? (6) Der Kleine Pauly (7) Aghion/Barbillon/Lissarrague, Reclams Lexikon der antiken Götter und Heroen in der Kunst (8) Udo Reinhardt, Der Antike Mythos Online Sources: (1) Wikipedia (2) theoi.com (3) gutenberg.spiegel.de/buch/4908/78 (4) antikes boiotien,unimuenchen.de/orte/orchomenos/Mythos/Mythische Koenige/RG-Athamas.htm Excursion: The Dardanelles As connection between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea the Dardanelles played an important role already in ancient times. They were the most important transport route for the grain from the present Ukraine of which Greece was dependent. The strait has a length of 65km and connects the Aegean with the Sea of Marmara. The narrowest location at Canakkale has a width of only 1.3km. They are named after the mythic king Dardanos who founded the city of Dardanos in the Troas. Unfortunately they have a very strong surface current from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean, so that an opportune wind is needed to sail against it. As long as the sailors had not learned to cruise the ships had to wait for the needed winds in the harbour. That adds to the great economical and strategic importance of Troy which in ancient times had an important harbour. Cruising, that means sailing against the wind, has been invented only later. So the Portuguese caravels could sail 'close to the wind', but cruising in the proper sense they couldn't. The Dardanelles were too an important connection between Europe and Asia. In the 2nd Persian war Xerxes with his huge army crossed the Dardanelles in 480 BC on 2 bridges of boats from Abydos to Sestos. This transgression was denominated by Aischylos in his 'Persians' as sacrilege and was seen as reason that the gods intervened on the side of the Greeks against Xerxes. 150 years later, in 334 BC, the 35000 men of Alexander's army crossed the Dardanelles in reversed direction from Sestos to Abydos. Alexander himself crossed separately from Elaios to Ilion. That was the beginning of the conquest of the Persian Empire and the Hellenisation of the world. It should be mentioned that in 278/277 BC the Galatians (Gauls) crossed the Dardanelles and thereby devastated the cities at the coast. But all these events were overshadowed by the Battle of the Dardanelles, one of the greatest butcheries of WWI, only comparable with Verdun or the Somme. The idea came from Churchill, at that time First Lord of the Admiralty. After the armies in the West have come to a deadlock he want to try to lever out the Central Powers from the South. His aim was the conquest of Istanbul and the cutoff of the Ottoman Empire. This done the Allies could sent reinforcements to Russia which was in great difficulties. At least Bulgaria would enter the war on the side of the Entente. But this operation became one of the greatest desasters of WWI by the disability and incompetence of its military commanders. Altogether losts of half a million soldiers had to be complained. As result Bulgaria enters the Central Powers and Russia collapsed. Churchill had to pack his bags and go. The course of events: 1st phase: The attack on Gallipoli began in February 1915 with strong naval forces of British and French warships which cannonaded the Turkish artillery emplacements. But returning they were running in a Turkish minefield and several of the 18 battleships sank or were heavily damaged. 2nd phase: After that the commanders decided to do it with land forces. In April 1915 a great invading army of British, French and Indian troops and especially troops from Australia and New-Zealand was sent to the Dardanelles to conquer the peninsula of Gallipoli and then march aginst Istanbul. They landed at several places of the peninsula but had not taken into account the persistent resistance of the Turks with their moveable guns. They were led by Kemal Pascha, later under the name Atatürk founder of the modern, secular Turkey. He was advised by the German chief of staff Liman von Sanders. They succeeded in occupying the heights of the coastal mountains in time and despite high losses they could hold them until end of the campaign. Thus the allied troops were pinned down more or less on the beaches. Because the strait was mined by the Turks the breakthrough with naval forces was impossible. In January 1916 after 10 month of fight the Allies abandonned the battle and evacuated the rest of the troops. In this time something like a Australian national feeling emerged. Strangely Liman von Sanders is not embedded in the national memory of the Germans. Surely his Jewish roots are playing a role. But Atatürk too had no interest to diminish his own merits. I have added (1) a map of the Dardanelles with the Turkish minefields (2) a pic of the allied naval forces (3) a photo showing how the campaign of the Allies stiffened in the same way as the war at the Western front (4) a photo of Liman von Sanders Literature: (1) John Keegan, Der Erste Weltkrieg, Eine europäische Tragödie, Rowohlt 2006 (2) Geoffrey Regan, Narren, Nulpen, Niedermacher, Militärische Blindgänger und ihre größten Schlachten, zu Klampen 1998 (aus dem Englischen, sehr zu empfehlen!) Online-Sources: (1) de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlacht_von_Gallipoli (2) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_operations_in_the_Dardanelles_Campaign (3) www.myvideo.de/watch/4091259/Schlacht_von_Gallipoli_TEIL_1 www.myvideo.de/watch/4091540/Schlacht_von_Gallipoli_TEIL_2 www.myvideo.de/watch/4091648/Schlacht_von_Gallipoli_TEIL_3 Best regards
Thanks for another excellent article! The coin is lovely, too. THESSALY, Halos AE Chalkous. 1.9g, 13.9mm. THESSALY, Halos, 3rd century BC. BCD Thessaly 86.2; HGC 4, 8. O: Diademed head of Zeus right. R: ΑΛΕΩ, Phrixos riding ram right; monogram to left. Ex BCD Collection
Great writeup Jochen, the history is most interesting, ancient and modern versions. Had the Austro-Hungarian armies been as well led and trained as the Imperial German Army, Russia would have been knocked out of the War in 1914/15. Thus Germany could have won it by end of 1915....no WW2/ Boleshivik Revolution/ Stalin/ Hitler/ Cold War.
