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Session Five - Tuesday, February 14th 10:00am PST
I
NCREDIBLE
D
ETAILED
C
RETAN
S
TATER OF
H
ERAKLES
S
LAYING
THE
H
YDRA
,
CA
. 300-270 BC
Enlargement
1679 Crete, Phaistos. Silver Stater (10.99 g), ca. 300-270 BC
. Herakles standing left, lion' s skin draped over arm, striking at Hydra with club;
between feet, crab / Bull advancing right.
Reverse:
AI
T
N, bull standing right. Svoronos 59; Le Rider pl. XXIII, 22 (same dies).
Extremely
Rare.
A fantastic coin! Boldly struck in high relief with amazing detail. Slight porosity.
Choice Very Fine
.
Estimate Value ........................................................................................................................................................................... $4,000 - UP
The Hanbery Collection; Ex MMAG (22-23 October 1984), 192.
Despite the fact that the Cretan city of Phaistos was far removed from Lerna in the Peloponnesos, the obverse of this coin depicts Herakles
engaged in the second of his twelve Labors - the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra. The Hydra was a monstrous swamp serpent with nine venomous
heads and a terrible secret: When one of its heads was cut off two more would grow up in its place! Herakles would have been done for if not for
his companion, Iolaos, who discovered that if the neck was cauterized with a torch after decapitation it would prevent new heads from appearing.
Thus, Herakles would chop one head off while Iolaos stood by to sear the neck with a torch and in this way they killed the monster. Since this and
the other Labors of Herakles were part of a larger plot by Hera to destroy him, she made the situation even more difficult by sending a giant crab
to distract the hero while he struggled with the monster. It is interesting to note that while the engraver has been careful to include the detail of
the crab on this coin there is no sign of poor Iolaos at all. Herakles always was a bit of a glory hound. It is unclear whether the bull reverse should
be interpreted as a representation of Herakles' seventh Labor, the capture of the Cretan Bull. This animal was sent from the sea by Poseidon to
test King Minos, who had promised to sacrifice anything that the god sent him. Thinking the bull too beautiful to kill, he sacrificed another bull in
its place. This betrayal enraged Poseidon who caused the bull to rampage throughout Crete and beget the monstrous Minotaur on Pasiphaë,
Minos' queen. The destructive wandering of the Cretan Bull was only ended when it was carried off to mainland Greece by Herakles.
R
EMARKABLE
Q
UALITY
S
ILVER
S
TATER OF
P
HAISTOS
,
CA
. 300-270 BC
Enlargement
1680 Crete, Phaistos. Silver Stater (11.38 g), ca. 300-270 BC
. T-A
-
N, winged figure of Talos standing facing, preparing to hurl stone and hold-
ing another.
Reverse:
AI
TI
[N], bull butting right. Svoronos 67 (same dies); De Luynes 2775 (same dies).
Very Rare.
Well struck and well
centered on a slightly porous planchet. Natural iridescent toning.
Nearly Extremely Fine
.
Estimate Value ....................................................................................................................................................................... $3,000 - 4,000
The Hanbery Collection; Ex Leu 54 (28 April 1992), 112.
Talos is described in the
Argonautika
of Apollonios of Rhodes as a bronze giant fashioned by Hephaistos in order to protect Zeus' beloved Europa
on Crete. He circled the island three times a day, throwing rocks at any ships that sailed too close. Jason and the Argonauts were only able to
defeat him through the removal of a bronze plug in Talos' heel which released the molten ichor that served as his blood. However, the Talos
depicted on this coin seems not to be a bronze automaton as described by Apollonios, but a winged deity, perhaps indicating he appears here as
a local Cretan form of Zeus associated with the sun. According to the Greek grammarian Hesychius of Alexandria (ca. 5th-6th centuries AD) Talos
was equivalent to Helios in the Cretan dialect. Thus it would seem that the myths of Talos told outside of Crete differed considerably from those
told locally on the island.