Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 24 30 January 2016
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Troas, Alexandria AR Drachm. 261-227 BC. Laureate head of Apollo right / Horse grazing right; AΛEΞΑ[N] above, ΔΡEΩN below; ΣI between legs. SNG München -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -;BMC Troas -. Cf. Classical Numismatic Group, Triton VI (14 January 2003), lot 323 Unpublished and Unique. 2.68g, 14mm, 5h.
Attractive old tone, well centred, Good Very Fine.
In the opening of Homer's Iliad the shrine of Apollo Smintheos is mentioned as the temple where the daughter of the Trojan priest Chryses, (possibly named after the town next to the temple which was sometimes called Chryse), who was called as Chryseis, 'the girl from Chryse', was taken captive by Agamemnon. This provoked Chryses to appeal to the god in the vocative as Σμινθεῦ (Smintheu, 'O, Sminthian') when imploring him to send a plague against the Greeks, presumably by mice. The epithet Smintheos was attributed by the later Greeks to a Pelasgian or Mysian origin and was taken to mean 'destroyer of mice'. The consonantal string -nth- (e.g. Corinth) is considered by modern philologists to be non-Greek and possibly Luwian in origin. The passage of Homer gives no indication as to its meaning, and so myths about Apollo Smintheos primarily arose from attempts to aetiologise the epithet.
The earliest coins in the name of Alexandria are bronze issues struck in about 300 BC imitating Hamaxitus (Apollo Smitheus) and Hamandria (Apollo/horse feeding). The earliest silver attributable to Alexandria are the tetradrachms of about 280-275 in the name of Alexander, which on grounds of style belong to the years after the death of Lysimachos.
Attractive old tone, well centred, Good Very Fine.
In the opening of Homer's Iliad the shrine of Apollo Smintheos is mentioned as the temple where the daughter of the Trojan priest Chryses, (possibly named after the town next to the temple which was sometimes called Chryse), who was called as Chryseis, 'the girl from Chryse', was taken captive by Agamemnon. This provoked Chryses to appeal to the god in the vocative as Σμινθεῦ (Smintheu, 'O, Sminthian') when imploring him to send a plague against the Greeks, presumably by mice. The epithet Smintheos was attributed by the later Greeks to a Pelasgian or Mysian origin and was taken to mean 'destroyer of mice'. The consonantal string -nth- (e.g. Corinth) is considered by modern philologists to be non-Greek and possibly Luwian in origin. The passage of Homer gives no indication as to its meaning, and so myths about Apollo Smintheos primarily arose from attempts to aetiologise the epithet.
The earliest coins in the name of Alexandria are bronze issues struck in about 300 BC imitating Hamaxitus (Apollo Smitheus) and Hamandria (Apollo/horse feeding). The earliest silver attributable to Alexandria are the tetradrachms of about 280-275 in the name of Alexander, which on grounds of style belong to the years after the death of Lysimachos.