Coins and Antiquities Consignment Shop
  10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! All Items Purchased From Forum Ancient Coins Are Guaranteed Authentic For Eternity!!! Please Call Us If You Have Questions 252-646-1958 Expert Authentication - Accurate Descriptions - Reasonable Prices - Coins From Under $10 To Museum Quality Rarities 10% Off Store-Wide Sale Until 2 April!!! All Items Purchased From Forum Ancient Coins Are Guaranteed Authentic For Eternity!!! Internet Challenged? We Are Happy To Take Your Order Over The Phone 252-646-1958 Explore Our Website And Find Joy In The History, Numismatics, Art, Mythology, And Geography Of Coins!!!

×Catalog Main Menu
Fine Coins Showcase

Antiquities Showcase
New & Reduced


Show Empty Categories
Shop Search
Shopping Cart
My FORVM
Contact Us
About Forum
Shopping at Forum
Our Guarantee
Payment Options
Shipping Options & Fees
Privacy & Security
Forum Staff
Selling Your Coins
Identifying Your Coin
FAQs
zoom.asp
   View Categories Home > Catalog > |Themes & Provenance| > |Denominations| > |Cistophori| > GS81789
Pergamon, Mysia, c. 133 - 67 B.C.
|Cistophori|, |Pergamon,| |Mysia,| |c.| |133| |-| |67| |B.C.|, The cista mystica was a basket used for housing sacred snakes in connection with the initiation ceremony into the cult of Bacchus (Dionysus). In the Dionysian mysteries a snake, representing the god and possibly symbolic of his phallus, was carried in a cista mystica on a bed of vine leaves. The cista in the mysteries of Isis may also have held a serpent, perhaps associated with the missing phallus of Osiris.

The thyrsus is the staff carried by Bacchus and his associates; topped by a pine cone or a bunch of ivy leaves and wreathed with tendrils of vine or ivy.
GS81789. Silver cistophoric tetradrachm, BMC Mysia p. 125, 110; Pinder -, VF, toned, Pergamon (Bergama, Turkey) mint, weight 12.565g, maximum diameter 26.5mm, die axis 0o, c. 133 - 67 B.C.; obverse Cista mystica with half-open lid, from which a snake emerges, all within wreath of ivy with berries; reverse bow-case ornamented with an apluster, strung bow emerging upper left, flanked on each side by a snake with head erect, HP monogram (control) above between heads of snakes, straps from case draped over snakes below, Pergamon monogram to left, snake entwined thyrsos to right; SOLD











Catalog current as of Thursday, March 28, 2024.
Page created in 0.516 seconds.
All coins are guaranteed for eternity