Minotaur Labyrinth of Knossos Crete Minoan Mythology Ancient Greek Coin Pendant Sterling Silver

Minotaur Labyrinth of Knossos Crete Minoan Mythology Ancient Greek Coin Pendant Sterling Silver 23 mm big coin Silver

Knossos, the center of the cult of Zeus, was the strongest city on Crete on historical times.
The Knossos mint, which had a considerable output of silver and bronze coins, was one of the most important on Crete. Iconographic ally, the representations on its coins revived its glorious mythical past. Minotaur and the Labyrinth with a floral pattern in the center, the symbol of Minoan world-domination build by Daedalus as a home for the Minotaur, are rendered on the silver staters of Knossos dating from after 425 BC down to the second quarter of the 4th c. BC. Minotaur was born, as a result to the encounter between a bull and Pasiphae, the wife of the Cretan King Minos. Minoans believed the bull is a creature of the cosmos, important to the sun and moon. The bull is a physical representation of an earth deity. Evidence can be found in the original Greek Minotaur myth and the infatuation with the white bull, the bull leaping games that connected man and beast spiritually, the ritual libation rhyton of worship, and lastly the horns of consecration that proved the bull in the mountain is the earth deity. Because they live in a turbulent world it was important for the Minoans to worship the earth to pacify the chaos of the universe, they believed man had the ability to overcome the natural environment through devote ritual. In the end the supremacy of man over nature did not succeed and the Minoan people succumbed to reoccurring devastation natural disasters.

The jewelry of the Minoan civilization based on Bronze Age Crete demonstrates, as with other Minoan visual art forms, not only a sophisticated technological knowledge and an ingenuity of design but also a joy in vibrantly representing nature and a love of flowing, expressive, shapes and forms. Jewelry took the form of diadems, necklaces, bracelets, Rings of gold. They often took the form of flowers such as lilies and in some cases with incised decorations particularly leaves, axes and cones but also animals and birds. Rings deserve special mention as they were not only decorative but also used in an administrative capacity as seals. Such Rings are usually found in Mycenaean tombs but originally are Minoan.


Filled with symbols and meanings, ancient Greek coins are some of the first coins ever minted, and feature legendary Gods, Heroes, classical art, and unique, subtle details that celebrate the civilization that still impacts us every day. Browse our collection of Ancient Greek coin jewelry and meet Alexander the Great, Athena and her Owl of Wisdom, Hercules and the Lion, the Boy on the Dolphin, Zeus, Helios and more. Ancient Art Greek jewelry direct from our workshop in Athens

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