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Obolos 16

11 October 2020
Webauction
overview
Starting Price: 100 CHF
Hammer Price:  700 CHF
Lot 826

IONIA. Ephesos. Circa 202-150 BC. Drachm (Silver, 15.5 mm, 4.11 g, 1 h), struck under the magistrate Danaos. E - Φ Bee with straight wings. Rev. ΔΑΝΑΟΣ Stag standing to right before palm tree. Kinns, Attic p. 85. SNG Copenhagen 288. Lightly toned, excellent centering and strike. Very fine.



Along with depictions of gods and heros, Greek coinage used animals most associated with their cities to identify their coins. At Ephesos both the bee and the stag were the principal animals associated with the city. According to the writer Philostratos, the Muses took the form of bees when they led the Athenians during their colonization of Ionia (imagines) 2.8), and Artemis' priestesses were called (melissai) or "bees" (Pausanias 8.13.1). The stag was the animal most sacred to the goddess Artemis, Ephesos' patron goddess, and she is often shown on the city’s coinage with a stag in close attendance: in her guise as huntress; in either a chariot drawn by a stag or riding on the back of one; subduing a stag with her bare hands; or when she appears in her stiff hieratic Anatolian form, two deer can stand like heraldic symbols on either side, looking up at her.

Online bidding closes: 11 Oct 2020, 20:53:00 CEST Current Date & Time: 28 Mar 2024, 17:09:46 CET Remaining Time: Closed Hammer Price:700 CHF by wangzai (12 bids)
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