Uncia (coin)
The uncia was a Roman currency worth 1/12 of an as. By derivation, it was the name of a coin valued at one-twelfth of an as produced during the Roman Republic. Obverse types of the include a knucklebone, a barleycorn. In imperial times the uncia was briefly revived under Trajan and Hadrian and this coin was about 11–14 mm in diameter and weighed about 0. 8–1.2 grams. It featured the bust of the emperor on the obverse with no inscription, if this issue belonged to the imperial system, meaning it was not a provincial piece, it would be an uncia. This issue may have made only for circulation in the East. Duella Roman currency Roman Republican coinage
Argos
Argos is a city in Argolis, Peloponnese and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is a bishopric and present Latin Catholic titular see. It is the biggest town in Argolis and a center for the area. Since the 2011 local government reform it has been part of the municipality of Argos-Mykines, the municipal unit has an area of 138.138 km2. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour, a settlement of great antiquity, Argos has been continuously inhabited as at least a substantial village for the past 7,000 years. The city is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network, a resident of the city of Argos is known as an Argive. However, this term is used to refer to those ancient Greeks generally who assaulted the city of Troy during the Trojan War. Numerous ancient monuments can be found in the city today, the most famous of which is the Heraion of Argos, agriculture is the mainstay of the local economy. The name of the city is ancient and several etymological theories have been proposed as an explanation to its meaning.
The most popular one maintains that the name of the city is a remainder from the Pelasgian language, i. e. the one used by the people who first settled in the area, in which Argos meant plain. Alternatively, the name is associated with Argos, the king of the city in ancient times. It is believed that Argos is linked to the word αργός, which meant white, according to Strabo, the name could have even originated from the word αγρός by antimetathesis of the consonants. As a strategic location on the plain of Argolis, Argos was a major stronghold during the Mycenaean era. There is evidence of settlement in the area starting with a village about 7000 years ago in the late Neolithic. It was colonized in prehistoric times by the Pelasgian Greeks, since that time, Argos has been continually inhabited at the same geographical location. Its creation is attributed to Phoroneus, with its first name having been Phoronicon Asty, the city is located at a rather propitious area, among Nemea and Arcadia. It benefitted from its proximity to lake Lerna, during the Dorian invasion, c.1100 BC, Argos was divided into four neighbourhoods, each of them inhabited by a different phyle.
Argos experienced its greatest period of expansion and power under the energetic 7th century BC ruler King Pheidon, under Pheidon, Argos regained sway over the cities of the Argolid and challenged Sparta’s dominance of the Peloponnese
Hades
Hades was the ancient Greek chthonic god of the underworld, which eventually took his name. In Greek mythology, Hades was regarded as the oldest son of Cronus and Rhea and he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated their fathers generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, Hades was often portrayed with his three-headed guard dog Cerberus. The Etruscan god Aita and Roman gods Dis Pater and Orcus were eventually taken as equivalent to the Greek Hades and merged as Pluto, the origin of Hades name is uncertain, but has generally been seen as meaning The Unseen One since antiquity. Modern linguists have proposed the Proto-Greek form *Awides, the earliest attested form is Aḯdēs, which lacks the proposed digamma. West argues instead for a meaning of the one who presides over meeting up from the universality of death. In Homeric and Ionic Greek, he was known as Áïdēs, other poetic variations of the name include Aïdōneús and the inflected forms Áïdos, Áïdi, and Áïda, whose reconstructed nominative case *Áïs is, not attested.
The name as it came to be known in classical times was Háidēs, the iota became silent, a subscript marking, and finally omitted entirely. Perhaps from fear of pronouncing his name, around the 5th century BC, Plouton became the Roman god who both rules the underworld and distributed riches from below. This deity was a mixture of the Greek god Hades and the Eleusinian icon Ploutos, and from this he received a priestess. More elaborate names of the genre were Ploutodótēs or Ploutodotḗr meaning giver of wealth. Epithets of Hades include Agesander and Agesilaos, both from ágō and anḗr or laos, describing Hades as the god who carries away all. He was referred to as Zeus Katachthonios, meaning the Zeus of the Underworld, by avoiding his actual name. In Greek mythology, Hades the god of the underworld, was a son of the Titans Cronus and he had three sisters, Demeter and Hera, as well as two brothers, the youngest of the three, and Poseidon. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings, after their release, the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged the elder gods for power in the Titanomachy, a divine war.
The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods, following their victory, according to a single famous passage in the Iliad and his two brothers and Zeus, drew lots for realms to rule. Some myths suggest that Hades was dissatisfied with his turnout, but had no choice, Hades obtained his wife and queen, through abduction at the behest of Zeus. Despite modern connotations of death as evil, Hades was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology, Hades was often portrayed as passive rather than evil, his role was often maintaining relative balance
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo KBE was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language literature. Borges works have contributed to literature and the fantasy genre. However, some critics consider Borges to be a predecessor and not actually a magical realist and his late poems dialogue with such cultural figures as Spinoza, Camões, and Virgil. In 1914, Borges family moved to Switzerland, where he studied at the Collège de Genève, the family travelled widely in Europe, including Spain. On his return to Argentina in 1921, Borges began publishing his poems and he worked as a librarian and public lecturer. In 1955, he was appointed director of the National Public Library and he became completely blind by the age of 55, as he never learned braille, he became unable to read. Scholars have suggested that his progressive blindness helped him to create innovative literary symbols through imagination, in 1961, he came to international attention when he received the first Formentor prize, which he shared with Samuel Beckett.
In 1971, he won the Jerusalem Prize and his work was translated and published widely in the United States and Europe. Borges himself was fluent in several languages and he dedicated his final work, The Conspirators, to the city of Geneva, Switzerland. Writer and essayist J. M. Coetzee said of him, He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction, Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo was born into an educated middle-class family on 24 August 1899. They were in comfortable circumstances but not wealthy enough to live in downtown Buenos Aires so the family resided in Palermo, Borgess mother, Leonor Acevedo Suárez, came from a traditional Uruguayan family of criollo origin. Her family had been involved in the European settling of South America and the Argentine War of Independence. His 1929 book, Cuaderno San Martín, includes the poem Isidoro Acevedo, commemorating his grandfather, Isidoro de Acevedo Laprida, a soldier of the Buenos Aires Army. A descendant of the Argentine lawyer and politician Francisco Narciso de Laprida, de Acevedo Laprida fought in the battles of Cepeda in 1859, Pavón in 1861, de Acevedo Laprida died of pulmonary congestion in the house where his grandson Jorge Luis Borges was born.
Borgess own father, Jorge Guillermo Borges Haslam was a lawyer, Borges Haslam was born in Entre Rios of Spanish and English descent, the son of Francisco Borges Lafinur, a colonel, and Frances Ann Haslam, an Englishwoman. Borges Haslam grew up speaking English at home, the family frequently traveled to Europe. Borges Haslam wed Leonor Acevedo Suarez and was father of the painter Norah Borges. At age nine, Jorge Luis Borges translated Oscar Wildes The Happy Prince into Spanish and it was published in a local journal, but his friends thought the real author was his father
Acheron
The Acheron is a river located in the Epirus region of northwest Greece. Its source is near the village Zotiko, in the part of the Ioannina regional unit it flows into the Ionian Sea in Ammoudia. In ancient Greek mythology, Acheron was known as the river of woe, in the Homeric poems the Acheron was described as a river of Hades, into which Cocytus and Phlegethon both flowed. The Roman poet Virgil called it the river of Tartarus, from which the Styx. The newly dead would be ferried across the Acheron by Charon in order to enter the Underworld, the Suda describes the river as a place of healing, not a place of punishment and purging the sins of humans. By this myth, Acheron is the father of Ascalaphus by either Orphne or Gorgyra, the river called Acheron with the nearby ruins of the Necromanteion is found near Parga on the mainland opposite Corfu. Another branch of Acheron was believed to surface at the Acherusian cape and was seen by the Argonauts according to Apollonius of Rhodes, greeks who settled in Italy identified the Acherusian lake into which Acheron flowed with Lake Avernus.
Plato in his Phaedo identified Acheron as the second greatest river in the world and he claimed that Acheron flowed in the opposite direction from Oceanus beneath the earth under desert places. The word is occasionally used as a synecdoche for Hades itself. Virgil mentions Acheron with the other rivers in his description of the underworld in Book VI of the Aeneid. In Book VII, line 312 he gives to Juno the famous saying, flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo, If I cannot bend the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell. The same words were used by Sigmund Freud as the motto for his seminal book The Interpretation of Dreams. The Acheron was sometimes referred to as a lake or swamp in Greek literature, as in Aristophanes The Frogs, in Dantes Inferno, the Acheron river forms the border of Hell. Following Greek mythology, Charon ferries souls across this river to Hell and those who were neutral in life sit on the banks. Theoi Project - Potamos Akheron LAchéron, Viol Consort
Silver
Silver is a metallic element with symbol Ag and atomic number 47. The symbol Ag stems from Latin argentum, derived from the Greek ὰργὀς, a soft, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earths crust in the pure, free form, as an alloy with gold and other metals. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, lead, Silver is more abundant than gold, but it is much less abundant as a native metal. Its purity is measured on a per mille basis, a 94%-pure alloy is described as 0.940 fine. As one of the seven metals of antiquity, silver has had a role in most human cultures. Silver has long valued as a precious metal. Silver metal is used in many premodern monetary systems in bullion coins, Silver is used in numerous applications other than currency, such as solar panels, water filtration, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils, and as an investment medium. Silver is used industrially in electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings, Silver compounds are used in photographic film and X-rays.
Dilute silver nitrate solutions and other compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides, added to bandages and wound-dressings, catheters. Silver is similar in its physical and chemical properties to its two neighbours in group 11 of the periodic table and gold. This distinctive electron configuration, with an electron in the highest occupied s subshell over a filled d subshell. Silver is a soft and malleable transition metal. Silver crystallizes in a cubic lattice with bulk coordination number 12. Unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in silver are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak and this observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of silver. Silver has a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a polish. Protected silver has greater optical reflectivity than aluminium at all wavelengths longer than ~450 nm, at wavelengths shorter than 450 nm, silvers reflectivity is inferior to that of aluminium and drops to zero near 310 nm.
The electrical conductivity of silver is the greatest of all metals, greater even than copper, during World War II in the US,13540 tons of silver were used in electromagnets for enriching uranium, mainly because of the wartime shortage of copper
Halfpenny (British pre-decimal coin)
The British pre-decimal halfpenny coin, usually simply known as a halfpenny, was a unit of currency that equalled half of a penny or 1/480th of a pound sterling. Originally the halfpenny was minted in copper, but after 1860 it was minted in bronze and it ceased to be legal tender in 1969, in the run-up to decimalisation. The halfpenny featured two different designs on its reverse during its years in circulation, from 1672 until 1936 the image of Britannia appeared on the reverse, and from 1937 onwards the image of the Golden Hind appeared. Like all British coinage, it bore the portrait of the monarch on the obverse, halfpenny was colloquially written ha’penny, and 1½d was spoken as a penny ha’penny /əˈpɛniˈheɪpni/ or three hapence /θriːˈheɪpəns/. Before Decimal Day in 1971 there were 240 pence in one pound sterling, twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound. Values of less than a shilling were simply written in pence, the original reverse of the bronze version of the coin, designed by Leonard Charles Wyon, is a seated Britannia, holding a trident, with the words HALF PENNY to either side.
Issues before 1895 feature a lighthouse to Britannias left and a ship to her right, various minor adjustments to the level of the sea depicted around Britannia, and the angle of her trident were made over the years. Some issues feature toothed edges, while others feature beading, over the years, various different obverses were used. Edward VII, George V, George VI and Elizabeth II each had a single obverse for halfpennies produced during their respective reigns. Over the long reign of Queen Victoria two different obverses were used, but the reign of Edward VIII meant no halfpennies bearing his likeness were ever issued. During Victoria’s reign, the halfpenny was first issued with the so-called ‘bun head’, the inscription around the bust read VICTORIA D G BRITT REG F D. This was replaced in 1895 by the ‘old head’, or ‘veiled bust’, the inscription on these coins read VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP. Coins issued during the reign of Edward VII feature his likeness, those issued during the reign of George V feature his likeness and bear the inscription GEORGIVS V DEI GRA BRITT OMN REX FID DEF IND IMP.
The obverse shows a portrait of the king, the inscription on the obverse is EDWARDVS VIII D G BR OMN REX F D IND IMP. The pattern coin of Edward VIII and regular issue halfpennies of George VI, George VI issue coins feature the inscription GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX F D IND IMP before 1949, and GEORGIVS VI D G BR OMN REX FIDEI DEF thereafter. Wikt, Northern British English, from British English half-penny’s worth, British Coins – information about British coins Collection of copper & bronze pennies of Great Britain
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight.
The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings.
Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
Charon's obol
Charons obol is an allusive term for the coin placed in or on the mouth of a dead person before burial. Archaeological examples of coins, of various denominations in practice, have been called the most famous grave goods from antiquity. The custom is associated with the ancient Greeks and Romans. Although archaeology shows that the myth reflects an actual custom, the placement of coins with the dead was neither pervasive nor confined to a coin in the deceaseds mouth. In many burials, inscribed metal-leaf tablets or exonumia take the place of the coin, the presence of coins or a coin-hoard in Germanic ship-burials suggests an analogous concept. The coin for Charon is conventionally referred to in Greek literature as an obolos, one of the denominations of ancient Greek coinage. Among the Greeks, coins in actual burials are a danakē or other relatively small-denomination gold, silver. In Roman literary sources the coin is usually bronze or copper, the word naulon is defined by the Christian-era lexicographer Hesychius of Alexandria as the coin put into the mouth of the dead, one of the meanings of danakē is given as the obol for the dead.
In Latin, Charon’s obol is sometimes called a viaticum, which in everyday usage means provision for a journey, encompassing food and other supplies. The same word can refer to the allowance granted to those stripped of their property and condemned to exile. The earliest literary evidence of this Christian usage for viaticum appears in Paulinus’s account of the death of Saint Ambrose in 397 AD, thomas Aquinas explained the term as a prefiguration of the fruit of God, which will be in the promised land. Greek epigrams that were literary versions of epitaphs refer to the obol that pays the passage of the departed, the satirist Lucian has Charon himself, in a dialogue of the same name, declare that he collects an obol from everyone who makes the downward journey. In an elegy of consolation spoken in the person of the dead woman, several other authors mention the fee. Humor, as in Aristophanes’s comic catabasis The Frogs, makes the journey to Hades less frightening by articulating it explicitly and trivializing it.
Aristophanes makes jokes about the fee, and a character complains that Theseus must have introduced it, the use of coins as grave goods shows a variety of practice that casts doubt on the accuracy of the term Charon’s obol as an interpretational category. The phrase continues to be used, however, to suggest the ritual or religious significance of coinage in a funerary context. Among the ancient Greeks, only about 5 to 10 percent of known burials contain any coins at all, in some Roman cremation cemeteries, many if not most of these occurrences conform to the myth of Charon’s obol in neither the number of coins nor their positioning. Variety of placement and number, including but not limited to a coin in the mouth, is characteristic of all periods
Kantharos
A kantharos or cantharus is a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, in its iconic Type A form, it is characterized by its deep bowl, tall pedestal foot, and pair of high-swung handles which extend above the lip of the pot. The Greek words kotylos and kotyle are other ancient names for this same shape, the kantharos is a cup used to hold wine, possibly for drinking or for ritual use or offerings. The kantharos seems to be an attribute of Dionysos, the god of wine, kylix Rhyton Ancient Greek vase painting Pottery of ancient Greece Gina Hander. CU Classics, Greek Vase Exhibit, Kantharos
