archaicwonder:The Greek Hero ThessalosThis drachm was struck by the Perrhaiboi in the ancient city o
archaicwonder:The Greek Hero ThessalosThis drachm was struck by the Perrhaiboi in the ancient city of Oloosson in Thessaly around 430 BC. It’s extremely rare, fine and worth about $18,000. It shows the hero Thessalos (Thessalus), wearing a long cloak and petasos, hanging behind him from a cord around his neck, struggling with a bull, which is attempting to escape. He holds a short club in his right hand. The reverse side shows the letters ΠΕ with a bridled horse galloping with its reins trailing behind, all within an incuse square.There are differing versions of the origins of Thessalos. In one version Thessalos was the son of Jason and Medea, and the ancestor of the Thessalian race. He was educated at Corinth, and afterwards succeeded Acastus on the throne of Iolcus. It is believed that Thessaly was named after him.However, Strabo tells us a few more versions of Thessalos’ lineage: “So much, then, for the several parts of Thessaly. But speaking of it as a whole, I may say that in earlier times it was called Pyrrhaea, after Pyrrha the wife of Deucalion, and Haemonia after Haemon, and Thessaly after Thessalos the son of Haemon. But some writers, dividing it into two parts, say that Deucalion obtained the portion towards the south and called it Pandora after his mother, and that the other part fell to Haemon, after whom it was called Haemonia, but that the former name was changed to Hellas, after Hellen the son of Deucalion, and the latter to Thessaly, after the son of Haemon. Some, however, say that descendants of Antiphus and Pheidippus, the sons of Thessalos the son of Heracles, invaded the country from Thesprotian Ephyra and named it after Thessalos, their own ancestor. And it has been said that the country too was once named Nessonis, like the lake, after Nesson the son of Thessalos.” (Strabo, Geography 9. 5. 23) The Perrhaiboi (Perrhaebi) were an ancient Greek people who lived in northern Thessaly. They took part in the Trojan War under Guneus and also fought in the Battle of Thermopylae. Their capital was Phalanna, and their most significant town, or polis, was Oloosson. -- source link