Savoca Coins London

Black | 1st Black Auction  –  1 June 2019

Savoca Coins London, Black | 1st Black Auction

Ancient Coins

Sa, 01.06.2019, from 5:00 PM CEST
The auction is closed.

Description

★ Statue of Hermes Perpheraios ★

Thrace. Ainos circa 455-453 BC.
Tetradrachm AR

25mm., 16,18g.

Head of Hermes right, wearing close fitting petasos with pelleted rim, his hair wound around his head in a plait / Goat standing right, AINI above, cult statue of Hermes Perpheraios on high-backed throne to right, all within incuse square.

very fine

May, Ainos 68; AMNG II 272; SNG Fitzwilliam 1653; De Luynes 1760 = Traité IV pl. CCCXLIV, 11.

Kallimachos, the poet (c.310-240 BC), presents in his seventh Iambos the ancient cult statue of Hermes Perpheraios: "Hermes Perpheraios is honoured in Ainos, the city in Thrace for this reason. Epeius, before the wooden horse (=the Trojan Horse), fashioned, a statue of Hermes that swollen Scamander bearing off swept away. Thence it was borne, to the sea by Ainos, where some men fishing drew it up in their net. When they saw it, finding fault with their catch, they tried to cut it up for firewood and to make a fire for themselves, but on striking it they were able to do no more (?) than make a wound-like mark upon the shoulder, before they were, completely worn out. And they tried to burn it whole, but the fire flowed around it. Giving up they cast it back down into the sea. But when they caught it up again in their nets, believing it to be a god or connected with a god, they established a shrine to it there upon the beach, and offered the first fruits of their catch one handing it round from another. When Apollon gave a response they received it into the city and honoured it very much like the gods". (Text from "The life story of a cult statue as an allegory: Kallimachos’ Hermes Perpheraios", Ivana Petrovic, p.208).

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Price realized 1'500 GBP 1 bid
Starting price 1'500 GBP
The auction is closed.
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