Lot 2102
Thrace, Ainos. Silver Tetradrachm (16.28 g), ca. 453-451 BC. Antiadas, magistrate. AINI, laureate head of Hermes right, wearing petasos. Reverse: Goat walking right within linear frame; around, magistrate's name: ANTIAΔAΣ; to right, Pan standing right, holding lagobolon and extending arm; all within incuse square. May 85 (A55/P68); Jameson 1050. Very Rare. Well struck on a small flan. Old cabinet toning. Choice Very Fine. Estimate Value $4,000 - 5,000
Ex Edgar L. Owen.
The depiction of Hermes here in this wonderful severe classical style represents the patron deity of Ainos. According to Apollonius Rhodes, the celebrated author of the Argonautica, the cult of Hermes came to Ainos in a remarkable fashion. His wooden cult image was originally constructed by Epeios, the Greek craftsman responsible for the Trojan Horse, but it was washed out to sea. The image drifted in the Aegean until it came ashore near the Hebros River in Thrace, and was then found by Thracian fisherman who assumed it was mundane driftwood and attempted to use it to fuel their fire. When the wood of the cult image would not burn, the fishermen threw it back into the Aegean, but the sea immediately spat it out onto the shore. Suddenly realizing that they were dealing with no simple driftwood but rather an image imbued with divine power, the fishermen subsequently venerated the wooden image and erected a shrine for it. (Evidently no one bothered to reflect that waterlogged wood often has a tendency not to burn or that the action of waves often brings objects back to shore). The Greeks identified the god of the xoanon as Hermes and gave him the epithet Perpheraios, meaning, "the Wanderer" in recognition of the image's travels at sea before arriving in Thrace. The goat featured on the reverse was the animal sacred to Hermes while the image of Pan alludes to another local cult of Ainos. This rustic deity was worshipped together with the nymphs in a cave at the foot of the acropolis at Ainos.
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| Realized $3,819 |
