Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Gordian III Æ 38mm of Heraclea Pontica, Bithynia. AD 238-244. Μ ΑΝΤ ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟϹ ΑΥΓ, laureate and cuirassed bust to right, breastplate decorated with eagle standing to left, head to right / ΗΡΑΚΛЄΩΤΑΝ ΠΟΝΤΩ, Hercules advancing to right, head to left, holding club and dragging Cerberus with chain, with lion skin wrapped around left arm; to right, figure of Pomona(?) to left on cippus, holding apple and ears of corn; tree to left. RPC VII.2 Online Unassigned ID 19694; RG 218. 23.81g, 38mm, 7h.
Near Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare; only four examples cited by RPC Online, of which just two are in private hands.
From the Collection of GK, Ukrainian Emigrant.
To atone for his slaying of his children and wife, Megara, in a fit of madness brought on by the hostile goddess Hera, Hercules was ordered by the oracle at Delphi to serve his cousin, King Eurystheus of Mycenae, for ten years. There, the jealous king ordered him to complete a number of tasks, or 'labours', which typically involved the slaying or capture of some mythical beast, or the obtaining of some inaccessible object.
The most famous of these labours was the twelfth and final one – the capture of the three-headed guardian dog of the Underworld, Cerberus, whose main task was to prevent the dead from being able to escape their confinement. This was a labour which the king believed to be impossible, and was chosen by him for that reason. There is no definitive source for the story of Hercules' labours, and the accounts of how the hero managed to capture the beast vary through the story's retellings – one common factor, however, is the same ingenuity and tremendous strength that characterise Hercules' approach to all of the labours he was ordered to undertake. The various versions of the myth tend to agree that impediments were placed on Hercules' ability to subdue Cerberus – Apollodorus, for instance, mentions that Hades would only allow Hercules to take Cerberus if he could constrain him without the use of his weapons, which the hero managed to do by using his lion-skin as a shield and putting the beast in a head-lock. Local legends and foundation myths flourished with regards to the places associated with this labour: there was a tradition that Hercules paraded his captive through various parts of the Greek world on his way to report back to the king – which is potentially what is being visualised in the tableau on this coin's reverse. Likewise, as with many ancient myths, this story was used to explain various aspects of the natural world: some sources suggested, for instance, that the bile which the dog vomited up in violent reaction to daylight produced the poisonous aconite plant around the mouth of the opening to the Underworld from which they had just surfaced. The tree on this coin's reverse is perhaps an allusion to such aetiological explanations, and pairs with the cult statue of Pomona on the other side of Hercules, who, in holding an apple, alludes to the previous labour of Hercules in which he had successfully stolen three of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides.
Near Extremely Fine. Extremely Rare; only four examples cited by RPC Online, of which just two are in private hands.
From the Collection of GK, Ukrainian Emigrant.
To atone for his slaying of his children and wife, Megara, in a fit of madness brought on by the hostile goddess Hera, Hercules was ordered by the oracle at Delphi to serve his cousin, King Eurystheus of Mycenae, for ten years. There, the jealous king ordered him to complete a number of tasks, or 'labours', which typically involved the slaying or capture of some mythical beast, or the obtaining of some inaccessible object.
The most famous of these labours was the twelfth and final one – the capture of the three-headed guardian dog of the Underworld, Cerberus, whose main task was to prevent the dead from being able to escape their confinement. This was a labour which the king believed to be impossible, and was chosen by him for that reason. There is no definitive source for the story of Hercules' labours, and the accounts of how the hero managed to capture the beast vary through the story's retellings – one common factor, however, is the same ingenuity and tremendous strength that characterise Hercules' approach to all of the labours he was ordered to undertake. The various versions of the myth tend to agree that impediments were placed on Hercules' ability to subdue Cerberus – Apollodorus, for instance, mentions that Hades would only allow Hercules to take Cerberus if he could constrain him without the use of his weapons, which the hero managed to do by using his lion-skin as a shield and putting the beast in a head-lock. Local legends and foundation myths flourished with regards to the places associated with this labour: there was a tradition that Hercules paraded his captive through various parts of the Greek world on his way to report back to the king – which is potentially what is being visualised in the tableau on this coin's reverse. Likewise, as with many ancient myths, this story was used to explain various aspects of the natural world: some sources suggested, for instance, that the bile which the dog vomited up in violent reaction to daylight produced the poisonous aconite plant around the mouth of the opening to the Underworld from which they had just surfaced. The tree on this coin's reverse is perhaps an allusion to such aetiological explanations, and pairs with the cult statue of Pomona on the other side of Hercules, who, in holding an apple, alludes to the previous labour of Hercules in which he had successfully stolen three of the golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides.