Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 81 25 Feb 2021
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Septimius Severus Æ 24mm of Corinth, Corinthia. AD 193-211. L SEPT SEV PERT AVG IMP, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right; uncertain c/m in oval incuse on shoulder / [CLI COR], Ino advancing to left, holding infant Melikertes in her arms, towards Isthmos in the form of a youthful naked man, seated to right on rocks, holding lowered branch; between them, a dolphin breaks the surface swimming to right. BMC 647 & Pl. XXI, 6 (for obv.) & 11 (for rev.); BCD Corinth 852 var. (bust type, same rev. die). 11.35g, 24mm, 6h.
Very Fine; some corrosion, struck from dies of fine style. Exceptionally Rare.
From a private UK collection.
In Greek mythology, Ino was one of the four daughters of the fabled hero and founder of Thebes, Cadmus (the others being Autonoe, Agave and Semele, mother of Dionysos). The Bibliotheca states that she was the second wife of the Boeotian king, Athamus, and that she bore him two sons, Learchus and Melikertes (1.9.1).
Along with the two boys, Ino also fostered her nephew, Dionysos. This prompted the jealous ire of Hera, whose husband Zeus had fathered the youth, and caused the goddess to render Athamus temporarily insane as an act of vengeance. In a frenzied and murderous state, Athamus hunted down and slaughtered Learchus, believing him to a be a ram, before pursuing Ino and Melikertes across Greece. Pausanias' Description of Greece asserts that, cornered and facing inevitable death at her husband's hands, Ino and her remaining son leapt from the Molurian Rock into the sea (1.44.7). Melikertes did not survive the plummet, however. His corpse was taken to the Isthmos of Corinth on the back of a dolphin, before both he and his mother were transfigured by a sympathetic Zeus into the marine deities Palaimon and Leukothea respectively. Both divinities became renowned guardians of the sea, and assisted sailors and heroes, Odysseus included, in negotiating precarious voyages.
This remarkably rare coin celebrates, on its reverse, Ino and Melikertes emerging from the depths to assume their immortal states. The Isthmos itself is here personified as an idealised youth reclining on the rocks, offering succour and sanctuary. This story, and the figures of Ino and Melikertes and their deified forms, ostensibly held enormous significance to the people of Corinth throughout ancient times. This is evidenced by the building of a temple dedicated to Palaimon and Leukothea on the Isthmos (Description of Greece 2.1.1), and the founding of the Isthmian Games, a means of honouring the memory of the deified Melikertes, which flourished until at least the mid-4th century AD.
Very Fine; some corrosion, struck from dies of fine style. Exceptionally Rare.
From a private UK collection.
In Greek mythology, Ino was one of the four daughters of the fabled hero and founder of Thebes, Cadmus (the others being Autonoe, Agave and Semele, mother of Dionysos). The Bibliotheca states that she was the second wife of the Boeotian king, Athamus, and that she bore him two sons, Learchus and Melikertes (1.9.1).
Along with the two boys, Ino also fostered her nephew, Dionysos. This prompted the jealous ire of Hera, whose husband Zeus had fathered the youth, and caused the goddess to render Athamus temporarily insane as an act of vengeance. In a frenzied and murderous state, Athamus hunted down and slaughtered Learchus, believing him to a be a ram, before pursuing Ino and Melikertes across Greece. Pausanias' Description of Greece asserts that, cornered and facing inevitable death at her husband's hands, Ino and her remaining son leapt from the Molurian Rock into the sea (1.44.7). Melikertes did not survive the plummet, however. His corpse was taken to the Isthmos of Corinth on the back of a dolphin, before both he and his mother were transfigured by a sympathetic Zeus into the marine deities Palaimon and Leukothea respectively. Both divinities became renowned guardians of the sea, and assisted sailors and heroes, Odysseus included, in negotiating precarious voyages.
This remarkably rare coin celebrates, on its reverse, Ino and Melikertes emerging from the depths to assume their immortal states. The Isthmos itself is here personified as an idealised youth reclining on the rocks, offering succour and sanctuary. This story, and the figures of Ino and Melikertes and their deified forms, ostensibly held enormous significance to the people of Corinth throughout ancient times. This is evidenced by the building of a temple dedicated to Palaimon and Leukothea on the Isthmos (Description of Greece 2.1.1), and the founding of the Isthmian Games, a means of honouring the memory of the deified Melikertes, which flourished until at least the mid-4th century AD.