The New York Sale
Auction 42 9 Jan 2018
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Lesbos, Mytilene. Electrum Hekte (2.57 g), ca. 412-378 BC. Forepart of winged lion left. rev. Sphinx seated right in linear square within incuse square. Bodenstedt 63; HGC 6, 989 correction. (lion, not boar). Rare. Mint luster present, delicately toned and unusually well centered. The seated sphinx is fantastic! Extremely Fine. Estimated Value $1,000
From the Dionysus Collection.
According to Greek mythology, the sphinx was a monstrous creature composed of a woman's head and the body of a lion that was sent to punish Boiotian Thebes. It would ask passersby a riddle, and if they could not give the correct answer the sphinx (from the Greek verb sphingo, "to throttle") would kill them. At last the tragic hero Oedipus answered the riddle and freed the city from the terror of the sphinx. The sphinx on this coin, however, is male, and therefore somewhat closer to the sphinxes of Egypt, the model from which the Greeks ultimately derived their sphinx tradition. Indeed, even in the Oedipus myth, the Greeks recalled that Hera had sent the sphinx to Thebes from its homeland in Aethiopia, not far from Egypt.
From the Dionysus Collection.
According to Greek mythology, the sphinx was a monstrous creature composed of a woman's head and the body of a lion that was sent to punish Boiotian Thebes. It would ask passersby a riddle, and if they could not give the correct answer the sphinx (from the Greek verb sphingo, "to throttle") would kill them. At last the tragic hero Oedipus answered the riddle and freed the city from the terror of the sphinx. The sphinx on this coin, however, is male, and therefore somewhat closer to the sphinxes of Egypt, the model from which the Greeks ultimately derived their sphinx tradition. Indeed, even in the Oedipus myth, the Greeks recalled that Hera had sent the sphinx to Thebes from its homeland in Aethiopia, not far from Egypt.