REALMS archive of entities

Mēn Pharnakou

deity sky Pontus single tradition · 2

Mēn Pharnakou was a deity in the Kingdom of Pontus, where a temple estate was dedicated to him and Selene at Ameria, near Cabira. The temple was probably established by Pharnakes I in the 2nd century BC, apparently in an attempt to counterbalance the influence of the Moon goddess Ma of Comana. The cult of Mēn Pharnakou in Pontus has been traced to the appearance of the star and crescent motif on Pontic coins at the time.

↻ synthesized from 2 sources

When

First attested
200 BCE
Attested period
-200 – -100
Historical notes
Temple established by Pharnakes I in the 2nd century BC.

Relationships

enemy of
Ma
allied with
Selene

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

wikipedia (2)
  1. Lunus
  2. Men (deity)

Source passages

“In the Kingdom of Pontus, there was a temple estate dedicated to Mēn Pharnakou and Selene at Ameria, near Cabira (Strabo 12.3.31). The temple was probably established by Pharnakes I in the 2nd century BC, apparently in an attempt to counterbalance the influence of the Moon goddess Ma of Comana”

#19304 · extracted by google/gemini-2.0-flash-001

“In the Kingdom of Pontus, there was a temple estate dedicated to Mēn Pharnakou and Selene at Ameria, near Cabira. The temple was probably established by Pharnakes I in the 2nd century BC.”

#19402 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5