Lot 3506

Description

Lesbos, Mytilene, c.454-427 B.C., electrum hekte (2.55 g), Bodenstedt dates 454-443 B.C., obv. Bearded head of Priapus right, wearing tainia, rev. Head of nymph right, wearing sphendone, within incuse square, (S.-, HGC 6, 969, Bodenstedt 43, (dies a/**a*). Very rare, and nearly extremely fine.

In NGC slab, strike 5/5, surface 4/5, of fine style, Bodenstedt note's 2 examples from this die pair and 5 for all die combinations.
Priapus, god of fertility and male virility, is seldom shown in portrait form on Greek coinage. He was the offspring of Aphrodite and either Dionysus or Hermes and is usually shown as a stunted figure with a grotesquely enlarged phallus; since he was also cursed with impotence, his endowment did him little good and he is usually seen as a comically suffering character. His cult was well established in Lampsacus in Mysia, which struck rare silver tetradrachms with a portrait strongly resembling the evocative image on this rare electrum hecte.