Lot 4620

Description

Acarnania, Anaktorion (Colony of Corinth), (350-300 B.C.), silver stater, (8.28 g), obv. Pegasos with pointed wing flying to left, AN monogram below, rev. head of Athena to left in Corinthian helmet over a leather cap, omphalos and AN monogram behind head, (cf.S.2248, Calciati 36 [p.494], SNG Cop.292, BMC 42-5). Very fine or better, rough surface, rare, especially with omphalos.

The Omphalos is extremely fine and the most important of all sacred stones. In mythology the Omphalos Stone is the very stone that the Titan Rhea gave the Titan Cronos to swallow instead of the newly born Zeus. Omphalos (literally, 'navel') is a sacred oval or hemispherical stone in Delphi. There it was situated in the centre of the temple of Apollo. To the ancient Greeks this stone was the centre or 'navel', of the earth. According to legend, Zeus determined the spot by sending forth two eagles simultaneously to fly from the eastern and western ends of the earth, and they met at Delphi.