Greek City of Myrina in Aeolis
Bronze 11mm (1.71 grams) Struck circa 2nd-1st Centuries B.C.
Reference: Sear 4221. B.M.C. 17, 137, 27; SNG München 574; SNG Copenhagen 226
 Radiate head of Helios right.
MY - PI either side of amphora.

Situated north-east of Kyme, Myrina was overshadowed by its  powerful neighbor, though it appears to have been a place of some importance in  Hellenistic times.

 You are bidding on the exact item pictured,  provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of  Authenticity.  

Helios  was the personification of the Sun  in Greek mythology . Homer often calls him Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod (Theogony  371) and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the  Titans Hyperion and Theia (Hesiod) or Euryphaessa (Homeric Hymn) and brother of the  goddesses Selene , the moon, and Eos,  the dawn. Ovid also calls him Titan.

Helios was imagined as a handsome god crowned with the shining aureole of the Sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to  earth-circling Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to  the East at night. Homer described Helios's chariot as drawn by solar steeds (Iliad  xvi.779); later Pindar described it as drawn by "fire-darting  steeds" (Olympian Ode 7.71). Still later, the horses were given fiery  names: Pyrois , Aeos , Aethon , and Phlegon .

As time passed, Helios was increasingly identified with the god of light, Apollo . However, in spite of their syncretism,  they were also often viewed as two distinct gods (Helios was a Titan , whereas Apollo was an Olympian ). The equivalent of Helios in Roman mythology was Sol , specifically Sol Invictus .

Etymology

The Greek masculine theonym Ἥλιος (Helios) is derived from the noun  ἥλιος, "Sun" in ancient Greek. The ancient Greek word derives from Proto-Indo-European . Cognate with Latin sol, Sanskrit surya , Old English swegl (sky-heavens)  Germanic sunna . The female offspring of Helios were  called Heliades .

Greek mythology

The best known story involving Helios is that of his son Phaëton , who attempted to drive his father's  chariot but lost control and set the earth on fire.

Solar Apollo with the radiant halo of Helios in a Roman floor  mosaic, El Djem , Tunisia, late 2nd century

In one Greek vase painting, Helios appears riding across the sea in the cup  of the Delphic tripod which appears to be a solar reference. Athenaeus in Deipnosophistae relates that, at the hour  of sunset, Helios climbed into a great golden cup in which he passes from the Hesperides in the farthest west to the land of  the Ethiops, with whom he passes the dark hours. While Heracles traveled to Erytheia to retrieve the cattle of Geryon , he crossed the Libyan desert and was so frustrated at the heat  that he shot an arrow at Helios, the Sun. Almost immediately, Heracles realized  his mistake and apologized profusely, in turn and equally courteous, Helios  granted Heracles the golden cup which he used to sail across the sea every  night, from the west to the east because he found Heracles' actions immensely  bold. Heracles used this golden cup to reach Erytheia.

By the Oceanid Perse, Helios became the father of Aeëtes , Circe , and Pasiphaë . His other children are Phaethusa  ("radiant") and Lampetia ("shining").

Helios and Apollo

Helios is sometimes identified with Apollo: "Different names may refer to the  same being," Walter Burkert observes, "or else they may be consciously equated,  as in the case of Apollo and Helios."

In Homer , Apollo is clearly identified as a different  god, a plague-dealer with a silver (not golden) bow and no solar features.

The earliest certain reference to Apollo identified with Helios appears in  the surviving fragments of Euripides ' play Phaethon in a speech  near the end (fr 781 N²), Clymene , Phaethon's mother, laments that Helios  has destroyed her child, that Helios whom men rightly call Apollo (the name Apollo is here understood to mean Apollon "Destroyer").

By Hellenistic times Apollo had become closely  connected with the Sun in cult . His epithet Phoebus, Phoibos "shining", drawn from  Helios, was later also applied by Latin poets to the sun-god Sol.

Coin of Roman Emperor Constantine I depicting Sol Invictus /Apollo with the legend  SOLI INVICTO COMITI, c. 315.

The identification became a commonplace in philosophic texts and appears in  the writing of Parmenides , Empedocles , Plutarch and Crates of Thebes among others, as well as  appearing in some Orphic texts. Pseudo-Eratosthenes writes about Orpheus in Catasterismi , section 24:

"But having gone down into Hades because of his wife and seeing what  sort of things were there, he did not continue to worship Dionysus , because of whom he was famous,  but he thought Helios to be the greatest of the gods, Helios whom he also  addressed as Apollo. Rousing himself each night toward dawn and climbing the  mountain called Pangaion, he would await the sun's rising, so that he might  see it first. Therefore Dionysus, being angry with him, sent the Bassarides,  as Aeschylus the tragedian says; they tore him  apart and scattered the limbs."

Dionysus and Asclepius are sometimes also identified with  this Apollo Helios.

Classical Latin poets also used Phoebus as a byname for the sun-god,  whence come common references in later European poetry to Phoebus and his car  ("chariot") as a metaphor for the sun. But in particular instances in myth,  Apollo and Helios are distinct. The sun-god, the son of Hyperion, with his sun  chariot, though often called Phoebus ("shining") is not called Apollo  except in purposeful non-traditional identifications.

Despite these identifications, Apollo was never actually described by the  Greek poets driving the chariot of the sun, although it was common practice  among Latin poets.. Therefore, Helios is still known as the 'sun god' - the one  who drives the sun chariot across the sky each day.

Bust of Alexander the Great as Helios (Musei  Capitolini)

Cult of Helios

L.R. Farnell assumed "that sun-worship had once been prevalent and powerful  among the people of the pre-Hellenic culture , but that  very few of the communities of the later historic period retained it as a potent  factor of the state religion." Our largely Attic literary sources tend to give  us an unavoidable Athenian bias when we look at ancient Greek religion, and "no  Athenian could be expected to worship Helios or Selene," J. Burnet observes,  "but he might think them to be gods, since Helios was the great god of Rhodes  and Selene was worshiped at Elis and elsewhere." James A. Notopoulos considers  Burnet's an artificial distinction: "To believe in the existence of the gods  involves acknowledgment through worship, as Laws 87 D, E shows" (note, p. 264). Aristophanes ' Peace (406-13) contrasts  the worship of Helios and Selene with that of the more essentially Greek Twelve Olympians , as the representative gods of  the Achaemenid Persians ; all the evidence shows  that Helios and Selene were minor gods to the Greeks.

Colossus of Rhodes

"The island of Rhodes is almost the only place where Helios  enjoys an important cult ", Burkert asserts (p 174), instancing a  spectacular rite in which a quadriga , a chariot drawn by four horses, is  driven over a precipice into the sea, with its overtones of the plight of Phaethon noted. There annual gymnastic  tournaments were held in his honor. The Colossus of Rhodes was dedicated to him. Helios  also had a significant cult on the acropolis of Corinth on the Greek mainland.

The tension between the mainstream traditional religious veneration of  Helios, which had become enriched with ethical values and poetical symbolism in Pindar , Aeschylus and Sophocles , and the Ionian proto-scientific  examination of Helios the Sun, a phenomenon of the study Greeks termed meteora, clashed in the trial of Anaxagoras ca 450 BC, a forerunner of the  culturally traumatic trial of Socrates for irreligion, in 399.

In Plato 's Republic (516B), Helios, the Sun, is the  symbolic offspring of the idea of the Good.

Usil, the  Etruscan Helios

The Etruscan god of the Sun, equivalent to Helios, was Usil. His name  appears on the bronze liver of Piacenza , next to Tiur, the  moon. He appears, rising out of the sea, with a fireball in either outstretched  hand, on an engraved Etruscan bronze mirror in late Archaic style, formerly  on the Roman antiquities market. On Etruscan mirrors in Classical style, he  appears with a halo .

Helios Megistos

In Late Antiquity a cult of Helios Megistos  ("Great Helios") (Sol  Invictus) drew to the image of Helios a number of syncretic elements, which have been analysed in  detail by Wilhelm Fauth by means of a series of late Greek texts, namely: an Orphic Hymn to Helios; the so-called Mithras Liturgy , where Helios rules the  elements; spells and incantations invoking Helios among the Greek Magical Papyri ; a Hymn to Helios  by Proclus ; Julian 's Oration to Helios, the last  stand of official paganism; and an episode in Nonnus ' Dionysiaca .

Consorts and children

Notes

• Listed above are the most common versions of the myths considering  mothers of Helios' children; other ones are known as well, for instance:
  • Rhode or the Nereid Prote were possible mothers of  Phaethon
  • Ephyra, of Aeetes
  • Antiope, of Aeetes and Aloeus
  • Asterope, of Aeetes and Circe
  • Crete , of Pasiphae
  • Hyrmine , of Augeas
• According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Clytie , sister of Leucothoe, also loved  Helios, but didn't have her feelings answered
• Anaxibia , an Indian Naiad, was lusted after  by Helios according to Pseudo-Plutarch

Horses of Helios

Some lists, cited by Hyginus , of the names of horses that pulled  Helios' chariot, are as follows.

According to Eumelus of Corinth - Eous; by him the sky is  turned. Aethiops, as if faming, parches the grain. These trace-horses are male.  The female are yoke-bearers: Bronte , whom we call Thunder, and Sterope , whom we call Lightning.

According to Homer, the names are : Abraxas , *Therbeeo.

According to Ovid: Pyrois , Eous , Aethon , and Phlegon ".

In  Greek mythology , the sun  was personified as  (pronounced /ˈhiË�li.É’s/ , Greek : Ἥλιος  "sun", Latinized as Helius). Homer  often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod  (Theogony  371) and the Homeric Hymn separate  him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia  (Hesiod) or Euryphaessa (Homeric Hymn) and brother of the  goddesses  Selene, the moon, and  Eos , the dawn. The names of these three were  also the common Greek words for sun, moon and dawn.

Helios was imagined as a handsome god crowned with the shining aureole of the sun, who drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day to  earth-circling  Oceanus and through the world-ocean returned to  the East at night. Homer described Helios's chariot as drawn by solar steeds (Iliad  xvi.779); later  Pindar described it as drawn by "fire-darting  steeds" (Olympian Ode 7.71). Still later, the horses were given fiery  names: Pyrois , Aeos , Aethon,  and  Phlegon.

As time passed, Helios was increasingly identified with the god of light, Apollo.  However, in spite of their syncretism, they were also often viewed as two  distinct gods (Helios was a Titan , whereas Apollo was an Olympian ). The equivalent of Helios in Roman mythology was Sol , specifically Sol  Invictus.

 An amphora (plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic (specimens in materials such as metal  occur occasionally) container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the  body. The word amphora is Latin , derived from the Greek amphoreus (αμφοÏ�εÏ�Ï‚),  an abbreviation of amphiphoreus,  a compound word combining amphi- ("on both sides", "twain") plus phoreus ("carrier"), from pherein ("to carry"), referring to the  vessel's two carrying handles on opposite sides.

Further, the term also stands for an ancient Roman unit of measurement for liquids. The  volume of a Roman amphora was one cubic foot , ca. 26,026 L .

Amphorae were used in vast numbers to transport and store various products,  both liquid and dry, in the ancient Mediterranean world and later the Roman Empire , and in some periods the shape was  also used for luxury pottery, which might be elaborately painted. Stoppers of  perishable materials which have rarely survived were used to seal the contents.  Two principal types of amphorae existed: the neck amphora, in which the  neck and body meet at a sharp angle; and the one-piece amphora, in which  the neck and body form a continuous curve. Neck amphorae were commonly used in  the early history of ancient Greece but were gradually replaced by the one-piece  type from around the 7th century BCE onwards. Most were produced with a pointed  base to allow upright storage by being partly embedded in sand or soft ground.  This also facilitated transport by ship, where the amphorae were tightly packed  together, with ropes passed through their handles to prevent breaking or  toppling during rough seas. In kitchens and shops amphorae could be stored in  racks with round holes in them.

Amphorae varied greatly in height. The largest could stand as much as 1.5  metres (5 ft) high, while some were under 30 centimetres (12 in) high - the  smallest were called amphoriskoi (literally "little amphorae"). Most were around  45 centimetres (18 in) high. There was a significant degree of standardisation  in some variants; the wine amphora held a standard measure of about 39 litres  (41 US qt), giving rise to the amphora quadrantal as a unit of measure in the  Roman Empire. In all, around 66 distinct types of amphora have been identified.

Myrina  (Ancient Greek: ΜυÏ�ίνα), was one of the Aeolian cities on the western coast of Mysia , about 40 stadia to the southwest of Gryneion . Its site is believed to be occupied  by the modern Sandarlik at the mouth of the Koca Çay .

History

 

It is said to have been founded by one Myrinus before the other Aeolian  cities, or by the Amazon Myrina . Artaxerxes gave Gryneium and Myrina to Gongylus , an Eretrian , who had been banished from his native  city for favoring the interests of Persia .

Myrina was a very strong place, though not very large, and had a good harbor. Pliny mentions the fame of its oysters and that  it bore the surname of Sebastopolis; while, according to Syncellus , it was also called Smyrna. An  inscription (Bulletin de correspondance hellenique, V, 283) tells us that Myrina  formed part of the Kingdom of Pergamon in the 3rd century BC. For some time  Myrina was occupied by Philip V of Macedon ; but the Romans compelled him to evacuate it, and  declared the place free. It twice suffered severe earthquakes; first in the reign of Tiberius , on which occasion it received a  remission of duties on account of the loss it had sustained; and a second time  in the reign of Trajan . The town was restored each time, and  continued to exist until a late period. It was the birthplace of Agathias, a  Byzantine poet and historian of the 6th century. Myrina minted coins in  antiquity, some of which survive.

Under Roman rule, Myrina was part of the Roman province of Asia and its bishopric was a suffragan of the metropolitan see of Ephesus . The names of some of its bishops are  known: Dorotheus, 431; Proterius, 451; John, 553; Cosmas, 787. It still existed  as a residential see in the 14th century, but is now included in the Catholic Church 's list of titular sees .

The site of Myrina was discovered at the mouth of the river that was the  ancient Pythicos, whose alluvia have covered what was the city's harbour.  Excavations (1880-1882) brought to light about four thousand tombs, dating from  the last two centuries BC, in which were found numerous objects representing the  divinities of the Greek pantheon; children's toys, reproductions of famous  works, etc.: most of these may be seen today in the Museum of the Louvre.

Famous residents

• Agathias