Lot 10
Lucania, Herakleia. Silver Nomos (7.74 g), ca. 390-340 BC. Head of Athena right, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with Skylla throwing stone, single-pendant earring and necklace, before, EY. Rev: [|-HPAKΛ]-EIΩN, Herakles standing facing, leaning right, strangling the Nemean lion; behind, [AΠOΛ] and club; below, oinochoe. Van Keuren 51 (same obv. die as illus.); Work 47 (same dies); HN Italy 1378. A nice bold strike, excellent detail, and superbly toned. One of the finest to have come on the market in decades. Superb Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $3,500
From the Dionysus Collection.
Ex Gemini VII (9 January 2011), lot 30.
Herakleia in Lucania was a joint foundation of the Dorian Tarentines and the Ionian (Athenian) Thurians on the Gulf of Taranto in 432 BC. Although it rose to prominence primarily under the patronage of Taras, the city's dual origin was frequently advertised on the coinage of Herakleia. A head of Athena similar to that found on the coinage of Thourioi and alluding to that city's Athenian origins appears on the obverse while Herakles is depicted slaying the Nemean Lion on the reverse. The hero at once serves as a badge of the city bearing his name and as a symbol of the Dorian Greeks as a whole since all of the Dorians traced their ancestry back to the sons of Herakles.
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| Realized $6,490 |
