Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XIV 21 Sep 2017
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Cyclades, Delos AR Stater. Circa 530 BC. Seven-stringed kithara / Rough incuse square. ACGC 122; cf. Traité pl. LXI, 16. 5.66g, 19mm.
Very Fine; partitioned in antiquity. Extremely Rare.
From a private Canadian collection.
Delos was a holy sanctuary for approximately a thousand years before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Under the direction of Athens, the island was purified in an attempt to render it fit for the proper worship of the gods: in the 6th century BC, the tyrant Pisistratos ordered that all graves within sight of the temple be dug up and the bodies moved to another nearby island, and in the 5th century BC, during the 6th year of the Peloponnesian war and under instruction from the Delphic Oracle, the entire island was purged of all dead bodies. It was then ordered that no one should be allowed to either die or give birth on the island due to its sacred importance. Immediately after this purification, the first quinquennial festival of the Delian games were celebrated there.
Very Fine; partitioned in antiquity. Extremely Rare.
From a private Canadian collection.
Delos was a holy sanctuary for approximately a thousand years before Olympian Greek mythology made it the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis. Under the direction of Athens, the island was purified in an attempt to render it fit for the proper worship of the gods: in the 6th century BC, the tyrant Pisistratos ordered that all graves within sight of the temple be dug up and the bodies moved to another nearby island, and in the 5th century BC, during the 6th year of the Peloponnesian war and under instruction from the Delphic Oracle, the entire island was purged of all dead bodies. It was then ordered that no one should be allowed to either die or give birth on the island due to its sacred importance. Immediately after this purification, the first quinquennial festival of the Delian games were celebrated there.