Ancient Greece - 300-280 BCE Lucania, Velia AR Didrachm NGC XF★

The obverse of this Didrachm features the profile of Athena wearing a crested Attic helmet decorated with a griffin. Griffins were mythological beasts with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. A tribe of these fearsome creatures guarded rich deposits of gold in the mountains of Scythia in northeastern Europe. Their one-eyed neighbors, the Arimaspians, battled against them for those riches. Upon the reverse of this coin is found a lion, a creature that plays an important role in ancient Greek art and mythology starting in the Late Bronze Age. The Lion Gate of ancient Mycenae in Greece is an important cultural artifact. Lions symbolize strength and royalty, especially in empires and kingdoms of the ancient near East. Mounting evidence, in the form of a very large number of lion bones found in Greece, Ukraine, and the Balkans, tell us that lions indeed did live among the Greeks and other peoples from the 5th millennium BCE until the 6th century BCE.