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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 2800098, member: 57495&quot;]I really can&#039;t get enough of the rich mythological and religious types found in Roman Provincial coinage, and this new coin is a case in point.&nbsp; It&#039;s a rare issue from Nicaea in Bithynia, and shown on the reverse is a <i>liknon</i> and a Silenos mask, two objects that were used in the rites of the Dionysian Mystery religion.&nbsp; As is often the case, researching a coin leads down some interesting rabbit holes...</p><p><br /></p><p>The Mystery cults, of which the Eleusinian cult of Demeter was the most prominent, had their origins in a mix of ancient Greek agrarian superstitions, religious symbolism, and a good bit of <i>kykeon</i>, a psychotropic booze made from barley and pennyroyal.&nbsp; Their popularity with the masses, especially women, survived the initial hostility of the conservative Roman authorities who became overseers of most of the Greek world.&nbsp; By the time of the late Republic and Empire, the Mystery cults had spread deeply into Roman society, and members of the aristocracy, high-ranking officials and consuls, and even emperors such as Augustus, Hadrian, Commodus and Gallienus became initiates of Mystery cults.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The rites of the Dionysian Mystery cult are by far less known than those of the Eleusinian cult.&nbsp; Most descriptions of them that I&#039;ve read are at best interpretative, and really resemble nothing so much as the goings on in a satyrs-and-nymphs-themed BDSM nightclub... not that I&#039;d know anything about such things <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie14" alt=":angelic:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.&nbsp; But more about that later...&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]652567[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>COMMODUS</b></p><p>Rare. AE Hemiassarion. 3.13g, 17.1mm. BITHYNIA, Nicaea, circa AD 177-192. RPC online 6024 (4 specimens). O: [ΑYΤ Κ Μ ΑΥΡ] ΚΟΜ ΑΝΤωΝ, laureate head right. R: ΝΙΚΑΙЄΩΝ, Mask of Silenos in profile, back-section within a <i>liknon </i>(winnowing-fan).&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The <i>liknon </i>was a winnowing-fan, a type of woven basket used in ancient times by farmers to separate grain from chaff.&nbsp; These baskets were apparently also sometimes used as cradles by the Greeks for their children.&nbsp; In mythology, the newly-born infant Dionysos was hidden from the wrath of Hera in a <i>liknon</i>, and awakened from his slumber by a group of nymphs and thereafter tutored by the old satyr Silenos.&nbsp; The coin below, also from Nicaea (but not mine) shows baby Dionysos in his <i>liknon</i>.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]652568[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>A remarkable group of wall paintings from a preserved home on the outskirts of Pompeii known as the Villa of the Mysteries depicts a Dionysian Mystery cult initiation.&nbsp; Below is the part of a painting which shows the use of a <i>liknon </i>as part of the rite.&nbsp; Sacral objects were placed within the basket, which would at some point be unveiled, allowing for the symbolic showing of these objects to the initiate, thereby &#039;awakening&#039; them and ushering them into the <i>thiasos</i>, or retinue, of Dionysos.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]652570[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The objects kept in the <i>liknon </i>would typically have included fruits and a wooden phalli, but perhaps also the Silenos mask, symbolic of age and experience.&nbsp; Another painted scene from the Villa of the Mysteries shows the use of a Silenos mask, held up behind a youth who gazes with some trepidation into a bowl, inside of which he would have beheld a reflection of the painted mask behind that of his own young face, a juxtaposition which would have caused a sense of foreboding and fear.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]652571[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>If you&#039;re interested to see more pictures and descriptions of the Villa, there&#039;s the Wiki <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_of_the_Mysteries" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_of_the_Mysteries" rel="nofollow">here </a>and another page <a href="http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/timelines/rome/empire/vm/villaofthemysteries.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.art-and-archaeology.com/timelines/rome/empire/vm/villaofthemysteries.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>A note on the city:<i> Nicaea was one of the most significant cities in Asia Minor, a constant rival of Nicomedia for regional importance.&nbsp; The existing city was renamed by Lysimachos after his wife, Nicaea, the daughter of the Macedonian regent Antipater.&nbsp; In mythology, Nicaea was also the name of one of Dionysos&#039;s consorts, a river nymph who bore him a son, Telete. </i>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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