The Edones King Getas

Getas was an obscure king of the Edones, a Thracian tribe whose territory was centered east of the Strymon River near Mount Pangaeum, but which also included cities in the Strymon Valley and parts of Mygdonia in the early fifth century BC. Although virtually nothing is known about Getas beyond that he was a contemporary of Alexander I of Macedon, the Edones had a reputation among the Greeks for their orgiastic worship of the wine-god Dionysos and were believed to have been among the first peoples to recognise the power of the deity. A mythical king of the Edones named Lycurgus was said to have actively worked to prevent the Dionysiac cult from taking root in his kingdom and for this he was severely punished either by being overcome with a violent madness, by being devoured by Dionysus' panthers, or by being strangled by the god's vines and ivy.

The present coin [conventionally described as an octodrachm] of Getas and the Edones belongs to a larger group of Thraco-Macedonian silver coins struck to the same standard by the neighbouring Ichnae and Orrescii in the early fifth century BC. These were produced from silver mined at Mount Pangaeum and frequently exported to Asia Minor and the Near East, perhaps as ingots. This Getas coin is an extremely rare example of his third issue featuring a quadripartite square on the reverse surrounded by the legend. The king's first issue carried the legend on the obverse and depicted a wheel on the reverse while his second issue replaced the wheel with a quadripartite square. The obverse type depicts a herdsman wearing a petasus and leading two bulls. It may represent the myth of Hermes stealing the cattle of Apollo, but it is equally possible that the type may refer to some local Thracian hero.