|

#G2
Amisos/Peiraeeus (Pontos), Drachm (silver coin replica) 400
- 350 BC.
OBV: Hd. of Tyche l., wearing turreted stephanos, hair rolled.
R: Owl standing facing, wings spread, AI AN across field,
ΠΕΙΡΑ in ex.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
In Greek mythology,
Tyche ("luck") (Roman
equivalent: Fortuna) was the
presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a
city, its destiny.
Increasingly during the Hellenistic period
cities had their own specific iconic version of Tyche, wearing a mural
crown, that is a crown like the walls of the city. In literature, she
might be given various genealogies, as a daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite,
or considered as one of the Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus
and Tethys or Zeus Pindar.
She was connected with Nemesis and Agathos Daimon
("good spirit").
Tyche appears on many coins
of the Hellenistic period in the three centuries before the Christian
era, especially from cities in the Aegean.
In medieval
art, she was depicted as carrying a cornucopia, an emblemmatic
ship's rudder and the wheel of fortune,
or she may stand on the wheel, presiding over the entire circle of fate. |