Greek Islands Off Thrace Thasos

Thassos, a large island off the western coastal region of Thrace, gained its enormous wealth by virtue of its local silver mines as well as mines it controlled on the Thracian mainland opposite the island city-state. According to Herodotos [VI, 46], the city derived 200-300 talents annually from her exploitation of this mineral wealth. Additionally, Thassos gained much material wealth as a producer and exporter of high quality wines, which was tightly regulated by the government, and it was perhaps due to this trade in wine that her coinage spread throughout the Aegean making it a widely recognized and accepted currency in distant lands.

The iconography of these coins is sometimes described as a satyr ravishing a nymph. Given the importance of the cult of Dionysos to Thrace, a more likely explanation is that the two mythological figures are engaged in a ritualistic Dionysian dance. Ritual abduction as a form of exogamy was frequent in tribal societies. The reference here is probably to the cult of Dionysos and is perhaps modelled on one of the stone reliefs for which it was famous for, as later with the Herakles archer type.

The satyr type may perhaps be a reference to the Thasian wine industry, since the satyrs were regular companions of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine. On the other hand, the type may allude to the wild Thracian mainland from which Thassos derived its silver. The Greeks commonly considered the Thracians to be great practitioners of Dionysiac cults.