Sikyon in Sikyonia Chimera Lion Goat Snake Monster Dove Silver Greek Coin i46323

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Item: i46323Authentic Ancient Coin of:Greek city of Sikyon in SikyoniaSilver Hemidrachm 14mm (2.57 grams) Struck 360-330 B.C.Reference: Sear 2774Chimera standing left; ΣΙ beneath.Dove flying left.In the 5th and 4th Centuries this important mint produced two large issues of silver staters and associated fractional denominations. The first was probably by the principal war-coinage of the Peloponnesian allies during the long struggle with Athens.You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.The Chimera was, according to Greek mythology , a monstrous fire-breathing female and male creature of Lycia in Asia Minor , composed of the parts of three animals -- a lion , a snake and a goat . Usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that ended in a snake's head, the Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra .The term chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything perceived as wildly imaginative or implausible.Description " Chimera of Arezzo ": an Etruscan bronzeHomer's brief description in the Iliad is the earliest surviving literary reference: "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire". Elsewhere in the Iliad , Homer attributes the rearing of Chimera to Amisodorus. Hesiod's Theogony follows the Homeric description: he makes the Chimera the issue of Echidna : "She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion ; in her hinderpart, a dragon ; and in her middle, a goat , breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay" The author of the Bibliotheca concurs: descriptions agree that she breathed fire . The Chimera is generally considered to have been female (see the quotation from Hesiod above) despite the mane adorning its lion 's head, the inclusion of a close mane often was depicted on lionesses, but the ears always were visible (that does not occur with depictions of male lions). Sighting the Chimera was an omen of storms , shipwrecks , and natural disasters (particularly volcanoes ).Gold reel, possibly an ear-stud, with winged Pegasus (outer band) and the Chimera (inner band), Magna Graecia or Etruria , fourth century BC ( Louvre )While there are different genealogies , in one version the Chimera mated with her brother Orthrus and mothered the Sphinx and the Nemean lion (others have Orthrus and their mother, Echidna, mating; most attribute all to Typhon and Echidna).The Chimera finally was defeated by Bellerophon , with the help of Pegasus , at the command of King Iobates of Lycia . Since Pegasus could fly, Bellerophon shot the Chimera from the air, safe from her heads and breath. A scholiast to Homer adds that he finished her off by equipping his spear with a lump of lead that melted when exposed to the Chimera's fiery breath and consequently killed her, an image drawn from metalworking.Robert Graves suggests, [10] "The Chimera was, apparently, a calendar-symbol of the tripartite year, of which the seasonal emblems were lion, goat, and serpent."Pebble mosaic depicting Bellerophon killing the Chimera, from Rhodes archaeological museumThe Chimera was situated in foreign Lycia, but her representation in the arts was wholly Greek. An autonomous tradition, one that did not rely on the written word, was represented in the visual repertory of the Greek vase-painters. The Chimera first appears at an early stage in the proto-Corinthian pottery-painters' repertory, providing some of the earliest identifiable mythological scenes that can be recognized in Greek art . The Corinthian type is fixed, after some early hesitation, in the 670s BC; the variations in the pictorial representations suggest to Marilyn Low Schmitt a multiple origin. The fascination with the monstrous devolved by the end of the seventh century into a decorative Chimera-motif in Corinth, while the motif of Bellerophon on Pegasus took on a separate existence alone. A separate Attic tradition, where the goats breathe fire and the animal's rear is serpent-like, begins with such confidence that Marilyn Low Schmitt is convinced there must be unrecognized earlier local prototypes. Two vase-painters employed the motif so consistently they are given the pseudonyms the Bellerophon Painter and the Chimaera Painter. A fire-breathing lioness was one of the earliest of solar and war deities in Ancient Egypt (representations from 3000 years prior to the Greek) and influences are feasible.In Etruscan civilization , the Chimera appears in the "Orientalizing" period that precedes Etruscan Archaic art; that is to say, very early indeed. The Chimera appears in Etruscan wall-paintings of the fourth century BC.In Medieval art , though the Chimera of Antiquity was forgotten, chimerical figures appear as embodiments of the deceptive, even Satanic forces of raw nature. Provided with a human face and a scaly tail, as in Dante's vision of Geryon in Inferno xvii.7-17, 25-27, hybrid monsters, more akin to the Manticore of Pliny's Natural History (viii.90), provided iconic representations of hypocrisy and fraud well into the seventeenth century, through an emblemmatic representation in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia .Classical sourcesThe myths of the Chimera can be found in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca (book 1), Homer's Iliad (book 6); Hyginus ' Fabulae 57 and 151; Ovid's Metamorphoses (book VI 339; IX 648); and Hesiod's Theogony 319ff.Virgil , in the Aeneid (book 5) employs Chimaera for the name of Gyas' gigantic ship in the ship-race, with possible allegorical significance in contemporary Roman politics.Hypothesis about origin The eternal fires of Chimera in Lycia , modern-day Turkey, where the myth takes place Main article: Mount ChimaeraPliny the Elder cited Ctesias and quoted Photius identifying the Chimera with an area of permanent gas vents which still can be found today by hikers on the Lycian Way in southwest Turkey . Called in Turkish Yanartaş (flaming rock), it consists of some two dozen vents in the ground, grouped in two patches on the hillside above the Temple of Hephaestus about 3 km north of Çıralı , near ancient Olympos , in Lycia . The vents emit burning methane thought to be of metamorphic origin, which in ancient times were landmarks by which sailors could navigate.Neo-Hittite Chimera from Karkemish , at the Museum of Anatolian CivilizationsThe Neo-Hittite Chimera from Carchemish , dated to 850-750 BC, which is now housed in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations no doubt served as a basis for the Greek legend. It differs from the Greek version in that while there are three heads, none of them is that of a goat, only a main human head, a lion's head facing forward and placed on the chest of the lion's body, and a snake's head placed at the end of the tail.Use for Chinese mythological creaturesSome western scholars of Chinese art, starting with Victor Segalen , use the word "chimera" generically to refer to winged quadrupeds, such as bixie , tianlu , and even qilin .Sikyon ( Greek : Σικυών ) was an ancient Greek city situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day prefecture of Corinthia . The king-list given by Pausanias comprises twenty-four kings, beginning with the autochthonous Aegialeus; the penultimate king of the list, Agamemnon , compels the submission of Sicyon to Mycenae ; after him comes the Dorian usurper Phalces . Pausanias shares his source with Castor of Rhodes , who used the king-list in compiling tables of history; the common source was convincingly identified by F. Jacoby as a lost Sicyonica by the late fourth-century poet Menaechmus of Sicyon.Sicyon was built on a low triangular plateau about two miles from the Corinthian Gulf . Between the city and its port lay a fertile plain with olive groves and orchards. After the Dorian invasion the community was divided into the ordinary three Dorian tribes and an equally privileged tribe of Ionians , besides which a class of serfs lived on and worked the land.For some centuries, Sicyon remained subject to Argos , whence its Dorian conquerors had come; as late as 500 BC it acknowledged a certain suzerainty. However, its virtual independence was established in the 7th century BC , when a line of tyrants arose and initiated an anti-Dorian policy. Chief of these rulers was the founder's grandson Cleisthenes , the uncle of the Athenian legislator Cleisthenes . Besides reforming the city's constitution to the advantage of the Ionians and replacing Dorian cults with the worship of Dionysus , Cleisthenes gained renown as the chief instigator and general of the First Sacred War ( 590 BC ) in the interests of the Delphians .About this time, Sicyon developed the various industries for which it was noted in antiquity. As the abode of the sculptors Dipoenus and Scyllis it gained pre-eminence in woodcarving and bronze work such as is still to be seen in the archaic metal facings found at Olympia . Its pottery, which resembled Corinthian ware , was exported with the latter as far as Etruria . In Sicyon also the art of painting was supposed to have been invented. After the fall of the tyrants their institutions survived till the end of the 6th century BC, when Dorian supremacy was re-established, perhaps by the agency of Sparta under the ephor Chilon , and the city was enrolled in the Peloponnesian League . Henceforth, its policy was usually determined either by Sparta or Corinth .In the 5th century BC Sicyon, like Corinth, suffered from the commercial rivalry of Athens in the western seas, and was repeatedly harassed by squadrons of Athenian ships. In the Peloponnesian War Sicyon followed the lead of Sparta and Corinth. When these two powers quarreled after the peace of Nicias it remained loyal to the Spartans. Again in the Corinthian war , Sicyon sided with Sparta and became its base of operations against the allied troops round Corinth. In 369 it was captured and garrisoned by the Thebans in their successful attack on the Peloponnesian League. During this period Sicyon reached its zenith as a centre of art: its school of painting gained fame under Eupompus and attracted the great masters Pamphilus and Apelles as students; its sculpture was raised to a level hardly surpassed in Greece by Lysippus and his pupils.The destruction of Corinth ( 146 ) brought Sicyon an acquisition of territory and the presidency over the Isthmian games ; yet in Cicero 's time it had fallen deep into debt. Under the Roman empire it was quite obscured by the restored cities of Corinth and Patrae ; in Pausanias ' age (A.D. 150) it was almost desolate. In Byzantine times it became a bishop's seat, and to judge by its later name Hellas it served as a refuge for the Greeks from the Slavonic immigrants of the 8th century.The village of Vasiliko (described by the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica as "insignificant") now occupies the site.This is one of the historical sites least visited by tourists in Greece. As of 2006, entry to all areas except the small museum is unrestricted.Frequently Asked QuestionsHow long until my order is shipped?Depending on the volume of sales, it may take up to 5 business days for shipment of your order after the receipt of payment.How will I know when the order was shipped?After your order has shipped, you will be left positive feedback, and that date should be used as a basis of estimating an arrival date.After you shipped the order, how long will the mail take?USPS First Class mail takes about 3-5 business days to arrive in the U.S., international shipping times cannot be estimated as they vary from country to country. I am not responsible for any USPS delivery delays, especially for an international package.What is a certificate of authenticity and what guarantees do you give that the item is authentic?Each of the items sold here, is provided with a Certificate of Authenticity, and a Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity, issued by a world-renowned numismatic and antique expert that has identified over 10000 ancient coins and has provided them with the same guarantee. You will be quite happy with what you get with the COA; a professional presentation of the coin, with all of the relevant information and a picture of the coin you saw in the listing.Compared to other certification companies, the certificate of authenticity is a $25-50 value. So buy a coin today and own a piece of history, guaranteed.Is there a money back guarantee?I offer a 30 day unconditional money back guarantee. I stand behind my coins and would be willing to exchange your order for either store credit towards other coins, or refund, minus shipping expenses, within 30 days from the receipt of your order. My goal is to have the returning customers for a lifetime, and I am so sure in my coins, their authenticity, numismatic value and beauty, I can offer such a guarantee.Is there a number I can call you with questions about my order?You can contact me directly via ask seller a question and request my telephone number, or go to my About Me Page to get my contact information only in regards to items purchased on eBay.When should I leave feedback?Once you receive your order, please leave a positive. Please don't leave any negative feedbacks, as it happens many times that people rush to leave feedback before letting sufficient time for the order to arrive. Also, if you sent an email, make sure to check for my reply in your messages before claiming that you didn't receive a response. 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