Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 55 18 Apr 2019
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Mysia, Kyzikos EL Hekte. Circa 550-500 BC. Winged siren standing left, holding tunny fish / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 74, pl. II, 29; SNG France 203; SNG von Aulock 7278. 2.71g, 12mm.
Very Fine.
From a private Swiss collection.
The mythical Sirens are best known to us from two ancient epics: the 'Argonautica' by Apollonios in which Jason and the Argonauts have to travel past them on their quest for the Golden Fleece, and Homer's 'Odyssey', where they are portrayed as a pair of dangerous creatures that lure passing sailors to their deaths with their sweet music (Odyssey XII 40). They are supposed to have inhabited an island with a particularly rocky shoreline onto which sailors would be drawn by their desire to hear the Sirens sing, leading to shipwreck. Speaking to Odysseus and warning him of the dangers he would encounter further into his journey, Queen Circe describes the Sirens as sitting in a meadow, with around them 'a great heap of bones of mouldering men' (XII, 45).
Very Fine.
From a private Swiss collection.
The mythical Sirens are best known to us from two ancient epics: the 'Argonautica' by Apollonios in which Jason and the Argonauts have to travel past them on their quest for the Golden Fleece, and Homer's 'Odyssey', where they are portrayed as a pair of dangerous creatures that lure passing sailors to their deaths with their sweet music (Odyssey XII 40). They are supposed to have inhabited an island with a particularly rocky shoreline onto which sailors would be drawn by their desire to hear the Sirens sing, leading to shipwreck. Speaking to Odysseus and warning him of the dangers he would encounter further into his journey, Queen Circe describes the Sirens as sitting in a meadow, with around them 'a great heap of bones of mouldering men' (XII, 45).