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Obolos 17

20 December 2020
Webauction
overview
Starting Price: 75 CHF
Hammer Price:  750 CHF
Lot 288

IONIA. Ephesos. Circa 202-150 BC. Drachm (Silver, 16.5 mm, 4.15 g, 12 h), struck under the magistrate Menekrates. E - Φ Bee with straight wings. Rev. ΜΕΝΕΚΡΑΤΗΣ Stag standing to right before palm tree. Kinns, Attic p. 88. SNG Copenhagen -. Lightly toned and quite nice. 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.

Online bidding closes: 20 Dec 2020, 17:24:00 CET Current Date & Time: 28 Mar 2024, 18:09:49 CET Remaining Time: Closed Hammer Price:750 CHF by www1569 (16 bids)
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