Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XV 5 Apr 2018
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Crete, Knossos AR Drachm. Circa 350-220 BC. Laureate head of Apollo left / Diademed youthful male figure (King Minos?), wearing drapery over his lower limbs, seated to left on a square labyrinth, holding Nike in extended right hand and sceptre with left; monogram to left, AΓEI (= gifts?) in the exergue. Le Rider, Crete, plate 35, 6 (this coin); Svoronos 88, pl. VI, 15; BMC 28, pl. V, 14 (same reverse die); Jameson 2519 (same reverse die). 4.88g, 2mm, 12h.
Very Fine; old repair below eye. Very Rare, only one other example on CoinArchives.
Ex Northern California Collection;
Privately purchased from Freeman & Sear, 2003;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 18, 29 March 2000, lot 189.
The possible identification of the ambiguous reverse as the legendary king Minos rests largely on the youthfulness of the figure together with his being seated upon the labyrinth of Daedalos, built to house the Minotaur. Though we are all familiar with the myth of king Minos, Theseus and the Minotaur, the extent of historical fact behind this story is uncertain, and excavations of the Minoan palace complex at Knossos has revealed no such structure. The explorer Arthur Evans, during his investigations of the site in 1900-1903, prompted by the enormity of the scale and intricateness of the architecture postulated that the palace itself was the origin of the mythological labyrinth. This theory is supported by the close association of the word 'labyrinth', which is a pre-Greek word of Minoan origin, with the Lydian word 'labrys' (double-axe); the labrys motif appears frequently at the Knossos palace complex, and excavations have unearthed many ancient ceremonial double-axes among grave-goods there. Whether there is a kernel of truth to the myth we may never know, but in the critically acclaimed bildungsroman 'The King Must Die' (published 1958) by Mary Renault, the author constructs an archaeologically and anthropologically plausible story that might have developed into the myth, presenting the palace at Knossos of the kings who are always called Minos as the Labyrinth, the king's son Asterion - the swarthy product of an adulterous union between his unfaithful wife Pasiphae and an Assyrian bull-dancer - as the ceremonial bull-mask wearing Minotauros (signifying heir to the throne), and the winding passages of vaults and store-rooms beneath the palace, through which Theseus must escape with the assistance of Ariadne, as the maze which he negotiates with the help of Ariadne's thread.
Very Fine; old repair below eye. Very Rare, only one other example on CoinArchives.
Ex Northern California Collection;
Privately purchased from Freeman & Sear, 2003;
Ex Numismatica Ars Classica 18, 29 March 2000, lot 189.
The possible identification of the ambiguous reverse as the legendary king Minos rests largely on the youthfulness of the figure together with his being seated upon the labyrinth of Daedalos, built to house the Minotaur. Though we are all familiar with the myth of king Minos, Theseus and the Minotaur, the extent of historical fact behind this story is uncertain, and excavations of the Minoan palace complex at Knossos has revealed no such structure. The explorer Arthur Evans, during his investigations of the site in 1900-1903, prompted by the enormity of the scale and intricateness of the architecture postulated that the palace itself was the origin of the mythological labyrinth. This theory is supported by the close association of the word 'labyrinth', which is a pre-Greek word of Minoan origin, with the Lydian word 'labrys' (double-axe); the labrys motif appears frequently at the Knossos palace complex, and excavations have unearthed many ancient ceremonial double-axes among grave-goods there. Whether there is a kernel of truth to the myth we may never know, but in the critically acclaimed bildungsroman 'The King Must Die' (published 1958) by Mary Renault, the author constructs an archaeologically and anthropologically plausible story that might have developed into the myth, presenting the palace at Knossos of the kings who are always called Minos as the Labyrinth, the king's son Asterion - the swarthy product of an adulterous union between his unfaithful wife Pasiphae and an Assyrian bull-dancer - as the ceremonial bull-mask wearing Minotauros (signifying heir to the throne), and the winding passages of vaults and store-rooms beneath the palace, through which Theseus must escape with the assistance of Ariadne, as the maze which he negotiates with the help of Ariadne's thread.