IONIA. Ephesos. Circa 202-150 BC. Drachm (Silver, 19 mm, 4.22 g, 12 h), struck under the magistrate Herakleitos. E - Φ Bee with straight wings. Rev. ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΤΟΣ Stag standing to right before palm tree. Kinns, Attic p. 87. SNG Copenhagen -. Well-centered and strong strike. Good 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.
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Online bidding closes:11 Oct 2020, 20:54:30
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Current Date & Time: 29 Mar 2024, 16:40:01
CETRemaining Time: ClosedHammer Price:800 CHF by jperrier (13 bids)
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