1947 Greek Medallions

I love the challenge of being a novice researcher and shopper for the unusual, unique and useful. It seems I’m always unearthing an unusual find. I love to share the information I locate and eBay rules regarding links can sometimes make it hard to provide background information for an unusual find.


Here is one such case. My 9yr old daughter found 3 medallions on a recent bargain hunt. I can only guess that they are souvenirs from various Greek cities or archeological sites. The spring-loaded wire on the back is the mystery. There are remnants of glue on the back of the "Bull" and the "Owl" - I wonder if they were sold on ribbons - Like Medals? or attached to something else to make clips. I just don’t know.

I wonder if these Medallions have anything to do with the Final incorporation of the Dodecanese Islands to Greece which I've read happened as late as 1947? in 1947 the President introduced the Truman Doctrine, which was to aid Greece and Turkey in resisting communist expansion So It would appear that Greece was in the middle of political turmoil in 1947. I wonder how many tourists there would have been.

This find lead me on a research mission that has still left many questions unanswered. Most of the information I found came from the following links:

Minoan Civilization
Athena
Egyptian Ships
Merchant Ships
Trireme

Here is what I have figured out so far:

The medal with the Bull is a depiction of the " bull jumping" made famous by the remarkable murals in the Minoan palace of Knossos (the word written at the top) of the island of Crete. This medallion bears a 1947 Backstamp with an animal that could be a Oryx Antelope, an African animal popular in ancient Greek paintings and drawings

Both the owl and the olive-sprig beside it were symbols of Athena and her win over Neptune in competition for the city. It has been said that Athena was once an owl herself. Athena was the patron goddess of wisdom, war, weaving, and Athens was named in her honor. The letters alpha, theta, and eta spell out "ATHE". The same layout was used on an ancient Athenian silver coin called an "obol" (or "obolos" or "obolus")

The Unusual Ship looks like the Athenian Trireme (the “Spear ship” according to Aeschylus). The Trireme has been used on coins and stamps and is considered the fastest ship in antiquity. The Fan Like Attachment on the end may be a "Speaking Horn" (a good place for the captain to sit while yelling at the oarsmen or at other ships) similar to that of ancient Egyptian vessels.