Description:
This Thessalian League coin was minted following the great victory in the Second Macedonian War in 200 – 197 BC, of the Roman General Flamininus over Philip V of Macedon. The defeated Philip V was forced to abandon all his possessions in Greece, including Thrace and Asia Minor. This victory freed the Greeks, who celebrated by issuing this new autonomous coinage. The Thessalian League, a loose confederacy of city-states and tribes in the Thessalian valley in central Greece, was re-established in 196 BC. The main seat of power of the League was in the city of Larissa, located on the bank of the Peneios river. Legend has it that the hero Achilles was born here and Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, died here as well.
The obverse side of this 2nd century BC coin features the head of Zeus, the most powerful god, crowned with oak leaves. In Greek mythology, Zeus oversaw the universe and was the "Father of gods and men." He ruled as king of the gods on Mount Olympus and as god of the sky and thunder with the power to hurl lightning bolts as a weapon, which Zeus used to defeat the Titans.
Athena, brandishing a spear and holding a shield, is depicted on the reverse of this coin. According to ancient Greek folklore, Athena was born full-grown and armored from the forehead of Zeus and was his favorite child. Athena became the goddess of wisdom, peace, warfare, strategy, agricultural arts and reason. An armed warrior goddess, Athena appears in Greek mythology as a helper of many heroes, including Odysseus, Jason and Heracles.
