Genuine Greek Bronze Coin Pendant depicting a Seashell

• Handmade 100% Made in Italy • Genuine Roman Bronze Coin 2nd-3rd cent. BC • Bezel material: Sterling Silver 925
£579.00

This sterling silver pendant was designed by me and handmade by the craftsmen of my shop, SERRA, opened in Rome in 1910 and located in via Margutta 57, in the historic center of the city, very close to the Spanish Steps! In the center of the pendant, there is an authentic Greek bronze coin ( 2-3th century B.C.) depicting a seashell; on the other side of the coin there is Phalanthos, founder of the city of Taras, in 706 B.C. Phalanthos was a valiant warrior who had led the Spartans to victory over the Messenians. After that war, there were internal agitations in Sparta: the Partenis, to which Falanto belonged, claimed the recognition of civil rights. But who were the Partenis? During the war, Spartan women complained that they could not procreate as their men were busy at the front; some of the soldiers, the Spartiates, were then called home to increase births. The young men, born of Spartiates and unmarried Spartan women, were called “Parteni” (meaning “children of virgins”) and had no political rights because they were considered illegitimate children. The Parthenics felt that they did not have much hope of being considered like other Spartans, so they preferred to move elsewhere. At the head of this group of leavers there was Falanto, ready to start a new life with his companions. Before leaving the Motherland, Phalanthos wanted to consult the Oracle of Delphi (the most authoritative source of predictions in the Greek world) to know what awaited him in the future. The response that Falanto heard saying: When you see rain from the clear sky, you will conquer territory and city. Phalanthos took courage and prepared to embark on the journey with the other Partenis. The crossing at sea was full of adversity: winds pushed them towards the Aegean sea and here the ship was shipwrecked. A DOLPHIN came to the rescue of Phalanthosand took him to the shore, where he coordinated the rescue in favor of his companions. The ship was repaired as well as possible and ready to leave again. After days and days of travel, Phalanthos, exhausted, fell asleep on the knees of his wife Etra, whose name means “clear sky”. The woman, thinking of the misfortunes of her husband, began to cry and her tears aroused Phalanthos. The dark words of the oracle were finally interpreted: it had rained from the clear sky. Phalanthos and his companions were at that moment in the Gulf of Saturo, at the mouth of the river Tara, and it is here where they founded a new city and called it Taranto in honor of Taras, the hero who centuries before he had arrived in those same places. n ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (/dɪˈmiːtər/; Attic: Δημήτηρ Dēmḗtēr [dɛːmɛ́ːtɛːr]; Doric: Δαμάτηρ Dāmā́tēr) is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over grains and the fertility of the earth. Her cult titles include Sito (Σιτώ), "she of the Grain",[2] as the giver of food or grain,[3] and Thesmophoros (θεσμός, thesmos: divine order, unwritten law; φόρος, phoros: bringer, bearer), "Law-Bringer", as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society.[4] Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a religious tradition that predated the Olympian pantheon, and which may have its roots in the Mycenaean period c. 1400–1200 BC.[5] Demeter was often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele, and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres.