Naville Numismatics Ltd.
Auction 79 12 Feb 2023
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Sicily, Selinus Didrachm circa 440, AR 23.00 mm., 7.29 g.
Heracles, naked, to r., pressing l. knee against Cretan bull and grasping r. horn with l. hand; r. hand wields club, about to strike the bull. Rev. The river-god Hypsas, naked, standing l. holding branch and patera, pouring libation over altar around which a serpent twines; to r., heron walking r. Above, selinon leaf. Rizzo pl. XXXI, 16. SNG Spencer-Churchill 49. SNG Lloyd 1252.
About Very fine
Much like the contemporary tetradrachms of Selinus, the designs on the didrachm are laden with complex symbolism that has drawn a variety of interpretations, some of which conflict with ancient literary evidence that, in theory, provides information to explain the coin type. The historian Diogenes Laertius, who early in the 3rd Century A.D. chronicled the lives and doctrines of ancient philosophers, preserves a deed that tradition attributed to Empedocles, a philosopher who lived at least five centuries earlier. Empedocles was said to have brought relief to Selinus, whose people suffered a pestilence from nearby brackish waters. He accomplished this feat by re-routing two rivers to bring fresh, flowing water of a different character into the marshes that were the source of pestilence. His effort was so successful that the people of Selinus began to worship him as a god. Since two river-gods are identified on the Classical-period coins of Selinus – the eponymous Selinus, and Hypsas – it might be assumed that these were the two rivers that Empedocles had diverted. However, A. H. Lloyd, in his 1935 study of the coin types of Selinus, noted that the course of the Hypsas is several miles from Selinus, and is separated by elevated territory that would make any such diversion impossible. Instead, Lloyd suggested the river diversion occurred at Acragas, and that during the five centuries that passed between the event and its retelling by Diogenes Laertius, the understanding of the true location was lost. As for the obverse type of Heracles subduing the Minoan bull, Lloyd considered it a canting reference to Selinus, which earlier had been named Heraclea Minoa.
Much like the contemporary tetradrachms of Selinus, the designs on the didrachm are laden with complex symbolism that has drawn a variety of interpretations, some of which conflict with ancient literary evidence that, in theory, provides information to explain the coin type. The historian Diogenes Laertius, who early in the 3rd Century A.D. chronicled the lives and doctrines of ancient philosophers, preserves a deed that tradition attributed to Empedocles, a philosopher who lived at least five centuries earlier. Empedocles was said to have brought relief to Selinus, whose people suffered a pestilence from nearby brackish waters. He accomplished this feat by re-routing two rivers to bring fresh, flowing water of a different character into the marshes that were the source of pestilence. His effort was so successful that the people of Selinus began to worship him as a god. Since two river-gods are identified on the Classical-period coins of Selinus – the eponymous Selinus, and Hypsas – it might be assumed that these were the two rivers that Empedocles had diverted. However, A. H. Lloyd, in his 1935 study of the coin types of Selinus, noted that the course of the Hypsas is several miles from Selinus, and is separated by elevated territory that would make any such diversion impossible. Instead, Lloyd suggested the river diversion occurred at Acragas, and that during the five centuries that passed between the event and its retelling by Diogenes Laertius, the understanding of the true location was lost. As for the obverse type of Heracles subduing the Minoan bull, Lloyd considered it a canting reference to Selinus, which earlier had been named Heraclea Minoa.
Heracles, naked, to r., pressing l. knee against Cretan bull and grasping r. horn with l. hand; r. hand wields club, about to strike the bull. Rev. The river-god Hypsas, naked, standing l. holding branch and patera, pouring libation over altar around which a serpent twines; to r., heron walking r. Above, selinon leaf. Rizzo pl. XXXI, 16. SNG Spencer-Churchill 49. SNG Lloyd 1252.
About Very fine
Much like the contemporary tetradrachms of Selinus, the designs on the didrachm are laden with complex symbolism that has drawn a variety of interpretations, some of which conflict with ancient literary evidence that, in theory, provides information to explain the coin type. The historian Diogenes Laertius, who early in the 3rd Century A.D. chronicled the lives and doctrines of ancient philosophers, preserves a deed that tradition attributed to Empedocles, a philosopher who lived at least five centuries earlier. Empedocles was said to have brought relief to Selinus, whose people suffered a pestilence from nearby brackish waters. He accomplished this feat by re-routing two rivers to bring fresh, flowing water of a different character into the marshes that were the source of pestilence. His effort was so successful that the people of Selinus began to worship him as a god. Since two river-gods are identified on the Classical-period coins of Selinus – the eponymous Selinus, and Hypsas – it might be assumed that these were the two rivers that Empedocles had diverted. However, A. H. Lloyd, in his 1935 study of the coin types of Selinus, noted that the course of the Hypsas is several miles from Selinus, and is separated by elevated territory that would make any such diversion impossible. Instead, Lloyd suggested the river diversion occurred at Acragas, and that during the five centuries that passed between the event and its retelling by Diogenes Laertius, the understanding of the true location was lost. As for the obverse type of Heracles subduing the Minoan bull, Lloyd considered it a canting reference to Selinus, which earlier had been named Heraclea Minoa.
Much like the contemporary tetradrachms of Selinus, the designs on the didrachm are laden with complex symbolism that has drawn a variety of interpretations, some of which conflict with ancient literary evidence that, in theory, provides information to explain the coin type. The historian Diogenes Laertius, who early in the 3rd Century A.D. chronicled the lives and doctrines of ancient philosophers, preserves a deed that tradition attributed to Empedocles, a philosopher who lived at least five centuries earlier. Empedocles was said to have brought relief to Selinus, whose people suffered a pestilence from nearby brackish waters. He accomplished this feat by re-routing two rivers to bring fresh, flowing water of a different character into the marshes that were the source of pestilence. His effort was so successful that the people of Selinus began to worship him as a god. Since two river-gods are identified on the Classical-period coins of Selinus – the eponymous Selinus, and Hypsas – it might be assumed that these were the two rivers that Empedocles had diverted. However, A. H. Lloyd, in his 1935 study of the coin types of Selinus, noted that the course of the Hypsas is several miles from Selinus, and is separated by elevated territory that would make any such diversion impossible. Instead, Lloyd suggested the river diversion occurred at Acragas, and that during the five centuries that passed between the event and its retelling by Diogenes Laertius, the understanding of the true location was lost. As for the obverse type of Heracles subduing the Minoan bull, Lloyd considered it a canting reference to Selinus, which earlier had been named Heraclea Minoa.