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We were actually somewhat surprised that it is now forbidden to drive up to the acropolis of Pergamum. Instead, there’s now a cable car whose gondolas fill up with the five-figure number of tourists that spill out of the thousands of tour buses daily in summer.

Since we had set out a bit late that morning, without any particular rush to reach our destination, we didn’t have to wait and had a gondola all to ourselves.

As with any good Greek city, Pergamum has a myth surrounding its founding: The king of Tegea had received an oracle in Delphi revealing that his grandson was going to kill his (the king’s) sons. In order to prevent this, he took measures and made his daughter Auge a virginal priestess in the Temple of Athena, where Heracles did more than just admire her from afar. In fact, Auge bore him a son that she named Telephus. Obviously, her father was none too pleased by this development, and the daughter was to be cast out to sea on a boat to drown …

Damascus (Syria). Philip the Arab, 244-249. Bronze.
Rev. Telephus is suckled by a doe.

… the son was brought to the mountains, where he was suckled not by a female wolf, but by a doe. As an adult, he found his mother again living with the childless King Teuthras in Mysia.

Pergamum. Gongylos(?). Diobol, around 420.
Rev. Satraps head with tiara facing right.

Pergamum. Heracles, son of Alexander the Great, + 309(?).
Gold stater, prior to 309.

To read the complete article, see: Springtime in Turkey – Part 5 (www.coinsweekly.com/en/News/4?&id=2012)