archaicwonder:Jason, the Greek hero on an extremely rare silver hemidrachm from Larissa, Thessaly, c
archaicwonder:Jason, the Greek hero on an extremely rare silver hemidrachm from Larissa, Thessaly, c. 500-479 BCThe coin shows the head of Jason wearing a petasos with ties under his chin. On the reverse, inscribed around Jason’s sandal is LA - [RI]-SAE; all within an incuse square.According to ancient Greek mythology Aeson was the rightful king of Iolcos, but his half-brother Pelias usurped the throne. Pelias, fearing he would lose his kingdom, approached the oracle at Delphi for advice and was told to beware of a man with one sandal. Unknown to Pelias, this was going to be the goddess Hera’s revenge. Many years ago, Pelias had angered Hera by committing the despicable act of killing his stepmother Sidero at the goddess’s altar and by prohibiting the people from worshiping Hera. The goddess vowed to avenge herself and she chose to do this through Jason, the rightful king Aeson’s son.When he turned twenty, Jason set out to reclaim the throne of Iolcus from his uncle Pelias. While he was walking to Iolcus, across the river Anauros, Jason came across an old woman trying to cross over to the other side. Being a good-natured young man, Jason helped the woman across but the water washed away one of his sandals. The old woman thanked him and Jason continued on his journey unaware that he had helped Hera, Queen of the Gods, who had disguised herself as the old woman as part of her plan to punish Pelias. Hera knew of Jason’s quest, but little did Jason know of the goddess’ participation in it.At Iolcus, a celebration was being held to honor the sea god Poseidon, Pelias’ father. Jason’s arrival and his claim to the throne shocked Pelias who started seeing that the old prophecy was coming true: here was the man with one sandal. To get rid of this dangerous stranger, Pelias agreed to abdicate the throne only if Jason brought him the Golden Fleece from the faraway land of Colchis, thought to be an impossible task. He was sure that Jason would never return and that he would remain king of Iolcus forever, but as we all know, Pelias was wrong and Jason succeeded at his task, proving the Delphic oracle’s prediction correct. -- source link
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