Numismatica Ars Classica
Auction 132 30-31 May 2022
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The Oitaioi
Didrachm after 167, AR 7.62 g. Lion's head l. with spear in its jaws. Rev. OITAI / ΩN Youthful Heracles standing facing, wearing ivy-wreath, holding club and lion's skin. de Nanteuil 850. SNG Copenhagen 179. Valassiadis, The Coinage of the Oitaeans, in Obolos 7, 10. SNG Lockett 1588 (this coin). Weber 2883 (this coin). BCD Thessaly I, 1217. BCD Thessaly II, –.
Extremely rare and possibly the finest specimen in private hands. Struck on excellent
metal and with a wonderful old cabinet tone. Good extremely fine
Ex Ars Classica VI, 1924, Bement, 929; Ars Classica X, 1925, 528 and Glendining 12-13 Febraury 1958, Lockett part II, 1451 sales. From the H. Weber collection and from an Exceptional Collection assembled between the early 70s and late 90s.
The types of this didrachm of the Oitaioi focus on the mythology of Heracles because it was within their territory that the greatest of all Greek heroes met his tragic end and subsequently ascended to the gods. Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, was almost carried off by the Centaur Nessos as she attempted to cross the Euenos River. She was saved by the timely arrival of Heracles, who shot the Centaur with a poisoned arrow. However, as Nessos lay dying, he told Deianeira to make a potion from his blood that he said would ensure the fidelity of husband Heracles, who had the unfortunate habit of fathering children with other women throughout Greece, Italy, the Near East, and North Africa. Deianeira followed his instructions and soaked her husband's shirt in the blood, not realising that it was contaminated with the poison (the venom of the Lernean Hydra) of the arrow that killed Nessos. When Heracles put on the shirt, the poison immediately began to burn his flesh and realizing that it would ultimately kill him, Heracles ascended Mount Oita, the mountain from which the Oitaioi derived their name, and built his own funeral pyre at the summit. Casting himself onto the flaming pyre, Heracles destroyed his mortal self, but freed his immortal self to rise to join the Olympian gods.
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Didrachm after 167, AR 7.62 g. Lion's head l. with spear in its jaws. Rev. OITAI / ΩN Youthful Heracles standing facing, wearing ivy-wreath, holding club and lion's skin. de Nanteuil 850. SNG Copenhagen 179. Valassiadis, The Coinage of the Oitaeans, in Obolos 7, 10. SNG Lockett 1588 (this coin). Weber 2883 (this coin). BCD Thessaly I, 1217. BCD Thessaly II, –.
Extremely rare and possibly the finest specimen in private hands. Struck on excellent
metal and with a wonderful old cabinet tone. Good extremely fine
Ex Ars Classica VI, 1924, Bement, 929; Ars Classica X, 1925, 528 and Glendining 12-13 Febraury 1958, Lockett part II, 1451 sales. From the H. Weber collection and from an Exceptional Collection assembled between the early 70s and late 90s.
The types of this didrachm of the Oitaioi focus on the mythology of Heracles because it was within their territory that the greatest of all Greek heroes met his tragic end and subsequently ascended to the gods. Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, was almost carried off by the Centaur Nessos as she attempted to cross the Euenos River. She was saved by the timely arrival of Heracles, who shot the Centaur with a poisoned arrow. However, as Nessos lay dying, he told Deianeira to make a potion from his blood that he said would ensure the fidelity of husband Heracles, who had the unfortunate habit of fathering children with other women throughout Greece, Italy, the Near East, and North Africa. Deianeira followed his instructions and soaked her husband's shirt in the blood, not realising that it was contaminated with the poison (the venom of the Lernean Hydra) of the arrow that killed Nessos. When Heracles put on the shirt, the poison immediately began to burn his flesh and realizing that it would ultimately kill him, Heracles ascended Mount Oita, the mountain from which the Oitaioi derived their name, and built his own funeral pyre at the summit. Casting himself onto the flaming pyre, Heracles destroyed his mortal self, but freed his immortal self to rise to join the Olympian gods.
View a video of this lot