Nomos 38

CIMMERIAN BOSPOROS. The Sindii. Circa 400 BC. Diobol (Silver, 14 mm, 1.64 g, 12 h). The nude Skythes (a son of Herakles) kneeling to right, holding a belt with his right hand and an unstrung bow with his left. Rev. ΣΙΝΔΩΝ Owl standing facing, with spread wings; all within a shallow incuse square. HGC 7, 4. HN p. 495. MacDonald, 79. Zograph pl. XXXIX, 38. Very rare, darkly toned and with a particularly sharp obverse. Minor flatness on the reverse, and with a few unobtrusive marks , otherwise, extremely fine.

The Sindi were a people who lived on the east coast of the Black Sea, south of Pantikapaion. Their eponymous capital, in the area of present day Anapa, was also settled by Greeks and became the later city of Gorgippia. The figure on the coin seems to represent Skythes, one of three children born from a union of Herakles with the female viper-monster Echidna, who lived in a cave in what would become Skythia. She had stolen some horses from him and only agreed to return them if he, as they say, gave her a good time. When Herakles left her, as he invariably left his partners, he left her his bow and his belt, saying that whoever among his children could draw the bow and wear the belt would be his true heir.