Messenia, Pylos
Caracalla, circa 198-209 CE
Assarion Bronze, 20mm, 3.72g, 9h
AV M ANTΩNINO Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Caracalla to right
Rev. ΠVΛΙΩΝ Athena standing to left, with patera and spear
BCD Peloponnesos 819; NCP p. 69 No. 1
Ex collection of John Aiello
Ex BCD, Collection
Ex Frank Kovacs 1979
Pausanias wrote (IV 36.2): There is a temple here of Athena Koryphasia.
Koryphasia means “Dweller of Peaks”.
We know surprisingly little else about the epithet. We do have an inscription from Pylos, mentioning that a copy of the decree was to be kept at the temple, indicating it had not only religious but civic purposes.
Another epithet, from Leonidas at Tarentum, mentions her.
Eight shields, eight helmets, eight woven coats of mail and as many blood-stained axes, these are the arms, spoil of the Lucanians, that Hagnon, son of Euanthes, the doughty fighter, dedicated to Coryphasian Athena.
Therefore, it appears that her worship emigrated out of Pylos at some point. Perhaps it was related to Athena’s aid to Telemachus in reaching Pylos, but in truth we simply don’t know.