Lesbos, Mytilene. Electrum Hekte (2.53 g), ca. 454-428/7 BC. Bearded head of Silenos right. rev. Head of lion facing within incuse square. Bodenstedt 47; HGC 6, 973. Fine Style Portrait.Very Rare. Boldly struck in high relief and well centered. Toned. Nearly Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $1,000
From the Dionysus Collection.
Silenos, a minor rustic wine deity closely connected to Dionysos, appears with some frequency on the coins of Mytilene as a reference to wine production on Lesbos. In antiquity the island was famous for its Pramnian wine. Homer refers to this vintage in the Odyssey and another tradition held that a brother of Sappho, the famous lyric poet of Mytilene, was an exporter of Lesbian wine to Egypt.