THE FAMOUS GREEK FLYING HORSE (A COLT) FROM A CORINTHIAN COLONY

Obverse: Pegasus, with pointed wing, flying right.
Reverse: Head of Athena right, wearing Corinthian helmet.

The reference used for this coin is Pegasi by Romulo Calciate, Edizioni I. P.

Leucas was founded by the Corinthians in the 7th Century B.C. and was considered to be of considerable importance – the head of the Akarnanian Confederacy was located here from the end of the 4th century B. C.

Corinth, one of the richest and most important cities of ancient Greece, gained its wealth from the control of the isthmus connecting Peloponnesos and central Greece. Besides being the chief trading community west of the isthmus, it was the second major Greek city to issue coins, probably about 575 B. C. Her silver supply was far up the Adriatic and the metal was therefore very dear at Corinth. Corinth had her own trading area westward, up the Adriatic and across it in Magna Graecia. They were known as ‘colts’ from the device of the Pegasus, the winged horse that Bellerophon had captured on Acrocorinthus. (Bellerophon, a legendary prince of Corinth, celebrated for his taming of the winged horse Pegasus, and for many other exploits, particularly, with the aid of Minerva, for his killing of the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster. Thereafter he tried to fly to heaven on his winged horse Pegasus, but Jupiter sent a gadfly to sting the horse and Bellerophon was thrown to earth. Subsequently, he wandered about, lame and blind, for the rest of his life.)

On Corinthian staters Pegasus appears walking or leaping to the left or right and with or without a bridle. A feature of great interest is that the Corinthian stater (this coin) is the one which shows the most sophisticated design and is certainly the most pleasing to the eye. In the Greek language "coru" means helmet and that the Corinthians, when choosing this device, wanted to recall the name of the city, while at the same time emphasizing their reputation as makers of helmets.

The design chosen for the stater was the patron goddess of the city, Pallas Athene (the goddess Athena), wearing a helmet of Corinthian style.

Also of interest to students of ancient coinage is the fact that many of the earlier issues of Pegasus coins had been cut into halves, quarters, or eighths, similar to what the Spanish did in later time with the two bits, four bits, etc.