VAuctions
Triskeles Sale 20 30 Jun 2017
View prices realized
There were two cities in Sicily issuing a bronze coin showing the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse paired with a reverse depicting an octopus, Adranon and Alontion. The coins from Adranon depict Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet, which derives from the town having been founded as a settlement by colonists from Syracuse - itself a Corinthian colony - around 400 B.C., and those from Alontion depict her wearing a Chalkidian helmet, as here. Alontion was not a Chalkidian colony, however, having been a native Sikel settlement, so the reasoning behind the choice of Chalkidian helmet is not known. The octopus of the reverse derives from the near-contemporary coinage of Syracuse under Dionysios I (405-367 B.C.).