SICILY, Syracuse. Circa 510-485 BC. AR Tetradrachm (17.19 gm). SVRA,
 charioteer driving walking quadriga right, holding reins with both hands
 / Quadripartite incuse square, with central medallion bearing archaic
 head of Arethusa left. Boehringer 20 (V15/R11); SNG ANS 4 (same obverse
 die); Jameson 734 (same dies). Toned VF. ($4000) From the William N.
 Rudman Collection. More than one interpretation has been proposed for the
 female head on the reverse of this coin, which although undergoing
 several stylistic metamorphoses remained a regular type for over 100
 years. This female head does not necessarily denote the same goddess and
 Demeter, Kore-Persephone, Artemis and Arethusa are all candidate models.
 The most probable identification of the goddess is, however, the
 traditional one proposed by Boehringer (pp. 97ff), that she is basically
 Artemis, the nature goddess with an affinity for all growing things,
 springs and water-nymphs. There is s spring called Ortygia at Ephesos,
 the principal seat of Artemis, as well as at Syracuse, and Pindar calls
 the Syracusan Ortygia the 'resting place' of Alpheos, but also the 'couch
 of Artemis', with obvious reference to the myth of the Peloponnesian
 river Alpheos and his pursuit of the fountain nymph Arethusa under the
 sea to the Sicilian shore. The four dolphins around the head on the next
 and subsequent issues are placed as if circling round the spring to mark
 the spot.

Triton V Sale, 16 Jan 2002, lot 1208.


Lot was unsold.