Olive on multicolored underprint
Obverse: Relief of Eleusis at center
The Eleusinian Relief, from late 5th century BC, displayed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is a representative example of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Triptolemus is depicted receiving seeds from Demeter and teaching mankind how to work the fields to grow crops, with Persephone holding her hand over his head to protect him.
Reverse: Relief of animal at bottom left, fruit at bottom center
Watermark: Head of Ephebus
Ephebos, also anglicised as ephebe, is a Greek word for an adolescent age group or a social status reserved for that age in Antiquity. Its main use was for the members, exclusively from that age group, of an official institution (ephebeia) that saw to building them into citizens, but especially training them as soldiers. |