Nomos AG
Auction 23 30 Nov 2021
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PERSIA, Alexandrine or Seleukid period. Andragoras, satrap of Parthia, circa 246/5-239/8 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 25 mm, 16.91 g, 6 h). Head of Tyche to right, wearing turreted headdress, single pendant earring, and pearl necklace; behind, monogram of Andragoras. Rev. ANΔPAΓOPOY Athena, wearing a Corinthian helmet, a long chiton and a himation, standing to left, holding owl on her extended right hand and resting her left on her shield by her side; behind her, a transverse spear. BMC 3-4, pl. XXVIII, 2-3. Mitchiner 20. Very rare, attractively toned, struck in high relief and very well preserved. Extremely fine.
Ex Roma 20, 29 October 2020, 315, from an American collection, previously in a German collection, c. 1975, and from the Andragoras-Sophytes Group of the 1960s.
So many of the coinages produced by the Greek rulers of the east who came to power in the years after Alexander, are struck in the names of people we know almost nothing about. Their absolutely closest parallel has to be generals and viceroys of the British Raj in India and Pakistan. They did extraordinary things, they changed peoples' lives and cultures, they created governments and, sometimes, stability, where none was before, and then they disappeared, only leaving the occasional curious trace (like the continued use of the typical Macedonian hat, the Kausia, in modern-day Afghanistan). An interesting fact but this coin of Andragoras, a Greek satrap almost totally lost to history, is the oddly peaceful looking Athena on the reverse of this tetradrachm. While she wears a helmet, has a helmet by a her side and has a transverse spear behind her (though she is neither carrying it nor touching it in any way), she wears no armor of any kind, not even her aegis: just robes. And while she is holding her familiar owl, it seems to be getting ready to fly off on a mission, like a carrier pigeon or an owl at Hogwarts, rather than anything else. Could this be some sort of syncretistic Athena who developed in the East?
Ex Roma 20, 29 October 2020, 315, from an American collection, previously in a German collection, c. 1975, and from the Andragoras-Sophytes Group of the 1960s.
So many of the coinages produced by the Greek rulers of the east who came to power in the years after Alexander, are struck in the names of people we know almost nothing about. Their absolutely closest parallel has to be generals and viceroys of the British Raj in India and Pakistan. They did extraordinary things, they changed peoples' lives and cultures, they created governments and, sometimes, stability, where none was before, and then they disappeared, only leaving the occasional curious trace (like the continued use of the typical Macedonian hat, the Kausia, in modern-day Afghanistan). An interesting fact but this coin of Andragoras, a Greek satrap almost totally lost to history, is the oddly peaceful looking Athena on the reverse of this tetradrachm. While she wears a helmet, has a helmet by a her side and has a transverse spear behind her (though she is neither carrying it nor touching it in any way), she wears no armor of any kind, not even her aegis: just robes. And while she is holding her familiar owl, it seems to be getting ready to fly off on a mission, like a carrier pigeon or an owl at Hogwarts, rather than anything else. Could this be some sort of syncretistic Athena who developed in the East?