51 Gallery
June 2017 Auction 9 Jun 2017
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SICILY, SILVER DIDRACHM OF SYRACUSE, ca. 485-480 BC, 8.327g, 3h. Boehringer 52. Old cabinet tone. Insignificant die-break on obverse. A rare coin of lovely late archaic style. Choice extremely fine. Art Coins Roma 2012 (6) lot 273
In Greek mythology, Arethusa was a nymph and daughter of Nereus, who fled from her home in Arcadia beneath the sea and came up as a fresh water fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse. Sicilian engravers were experimenting by the fifth century BC with a multitude of different styles and images for the water nymph... through varied hairstyles and different types of ornamentation, they achieved the greatest elaboration when they signed their work. "Beyond these coins, human comprehension cannot go", sighed the famous art historian Johann Winckelmann.
In Greek mythology, Arethusa was a nymph and daughter of Nereus, who fled from her home in Arcadia beneath the sea and came up as a fresh water fountain on the island of Ortygia in Syracuse. Sicilian engravers were experimenting by the fifth century BC with a multitude of different styles and images for the water nymph... through varied hairstyles and different types of ornamentation, they achieved the greatest elaboration when they signed their work. "Beyond these coins, human comprehension cannot go", sighed the famous art historian Johann Winckelmann.