Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction X 27 September 2015
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Crete, Phaistos AR Stater. Mid-Late 4th century BC. Herakles standing in fighting attitude to left, wearing Nemean lion skin, seizing with his left hand one of the heads of the Lernean Hydra, and with his right hand preparing to strike with club; between legs, crab on exegual line / ΦΑΙΣΤΙΩΝ, Bull butting to right on wavy exergual line. Cf. for obverse Svoronos 61, pl. 24, 21, and for reverse 21, p. 24, 22 (same die); cf. Le Rider 61, pl. 23, 24 (bull butting left). 11.81g, 26mm, 11h.
About Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare; apparently also a unique die combination.
It has been repeatedly suggested that the later designs of Phaistos copy a now lost masterpiece of sculpture or painting, perhaps even a statue group by the great sculptor Lysippos (see Lehmann, 'Statues on Coins', New York 1946; see also Lacroix, 'Les Reproductions de Statues sur les Monnaies Grecques', Liege 1949; see also Lattimore, 'Lysippian Sculpture on Greek Coins', California Studies in Classical Antiquity Vol. 5 1972).
Lattimore makes a plausible and convincing argument for the Herakles-Hydra confrontation as depicted here being copied from a sculpture; in particular he notes that a sculptural prototype is strongly suggested by 'a feature that is rare, possibly unique, in Greek numismatic design: the group of combatants is shown from both sides, not in mirror reversal, but as two profile views of a three-dimensional group' (cf. Svoronos pl. XXIV, 17 and 22, and Wroth pl. XV, 6). Lattimore notes two discrepancies: that the head of the lion skin is sometimes depicted whether we are shown the fron or back view of Herakles, and the lion's paw always passes behind the body of Herakles, but he explains these as a minor and illustrative artistic licence on the part of the die engraver, and a practical necessity to avoid overlapping planes, respectively.
About Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare; apparently also a unique die combination.
It has been repeatedly suggested that the later designs of Phaistos copy a now lost masterpiece of sculpture or painting, perhaps even a statue group by the great sculptor Lysippos (see Lehmann, 'Statues on Coins', New York 1946; see also Lacroix, 'Les Reproductions de Statues sur les Monnaies Grecques', Liege 1949; see also Lattimore, 'Lysippian Sculpture on Greek Coins', California Studies in Classical Antiquity Vol. 5 1972).
Lattimore makes a plausible and convincing argument for the Herakles-Hydra confrontation as depicted here being copied from a sculpture; in particular he notes that a sculptural prototype is strongly suggested by 'a feature that is rare, possibly unique, in Greek numismatic design: the group of combatants is shown from both sides, not in mirror reversal, but as two profile views of a three-dimensional group' (cf. Svoronos pl. XXIV, 17 and 22, and Wroth pl. XV, 6). Lattimore notes two discrepancies: that the head of the lion skin is sometimes depicted whether we are shown the fron or back view of Herakles, and the lion's paw always passes behind the body of Herakles, but he explains these as a minor and illustrative artistic licence on the part of the die engraver, and a practical necessity to avoid overlapping planes, respectively.