Early 3rd century BCE
Ae Dichalkon 7.3g 19mm
Obv: Diademed bust of Zeus right
Rev: Phrixos , naked but for cloak billowing out behind him like wings, riding ram to right while holding onto its neck and chest with both arms; monogram to left; ALEWN below
Ex Bargain Bin Ancients
Per mythology, Halos was founded by Athamas, who was the father of Phrixos, who is depicted on the reverse of this coin. Athamas made the mistake of marrying a woman Ino, who hated his children from a previous mother.
In order to get rid of them, she roasted all the crop seeds so they wouldn’t grow. This dismayed the city, since they had no crops. When they sent people to the Oracle to ask what to do, she bribed them to say the only out was to sacrifice Phrixos.
Since Athamas wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed, he started along with this until a golden ram sent by their natural mother picked up Phrixos and his sister Helle. Unfortunately, right around the Hellespont Helle fell off and died, so they named the place for her. The ram took Phrixos all the way to Colchis, in modern day Georgia, where the king gave him his daughter in marriage.
In return, Phrixos gave that king the Golden Fleece from the ram, which later on inspired its own novel in Jason and the Argonauts.
Ino eventually attracted the ill of Hera when she raised Dionysos, who was the son of her sister. However, Hera instead afflicted poor Athamas with madness and he slew one of his sons. Ino took the other son into the sea, where she was worshipped as a sea goddess.
All of this happened in Boeotia. Since Athamas was now no longer mad but now seriously bummed about his action, he went to see the Oracle, who advised him to look for a place where he received hospitality from beasts.
So, Athamas headed to Thessaly, which had a healthy population of critters at the time, and surprised some wolves eating a sheep. Since the wolves just fled, he felt that met the rule book and founded Halos at the spot.
In 346 BCE, Philip II’s general Parmenion destroyed the city during the Third Sacred War. It was refounded in 302 BCE by Demetrios I Poliorketes. In 265 BCE it was destroyed again, this time by an earthquake. The buildings were later dismantled by farmers over the centuries for building materials, and today a highway goes through the ancient city, though the original wall is visible while driving through.
Andros supplies ships to Xerxes’ fleet. Xerxes stays in Halos.
Parmenion, a general of Philip II, destroys Halos during the Third Sacred War.
Halos is refounded by Demetrios Poliorketes.