stater of Herakleion, 432-420 BC

Obv. hd Athena. In the back an aegis (goat-skin shield with snakes)
Rev. Herakles seated, holding skyphos (small one-handled jug)

Van Keulen 1                   7.53 g                     Numismatica Ars Classica Auction 29 11 May 2005 lot 28


type vK001

d=21 mm
Nomos circa 415-400, AR 7.53 g. Wreathed head of Athena r. hair bound at nape of neck, against background of aegis. 
Rev. HERAKLEIWN Heracles seated l. on rock draped with lion skin, holding one handled jug in r. hand and supporting 
himself on l. arm; below, club and shell resting against rock. 
Historia Numorum Italy 1362. SNG ANS 45 (these dies). AMB 104 (these dies). Jameson 1232 (these dies). Work 1.

Extremely rare. A very interesting and fascinating reverse composition.

Minor area of porosity on reverse, otherwise good very fine
This Nomos is among the oldest Heraclean issues. According to scholars, it is ascribable to a die-engraver from Taras. 
The coin bears an unusual representation of Athena: without helmet, but framed on the adorned background of the aegis 
(shield covered with goat-skin), surrounded by snakes. The reverse shows and equally unusual Heracles: the hero is not 
occupied in one of his amazing labours, instead he is caught at a moment of rest, reclining (this scheme was subsequently 
resumed by Croton on its later coins) on a rock draped with a lion-skin (the most characteristic attribute of the hero) and 
holding a chalice in his right hand. A club leans against the rock. The relationship between Heracles, wine, and the Dionysian 
world is known from various sources: myth (Heracles was at the service of the vine-dresser Sileus; Heracles and Folus), 
archaeology (the well-known drunken Heracles from Herculaneum, before 79 A.D.), and literature. The great lyric poet 
Stesichorus (VI cent. B. C.), probably born in Metauro (a Locrese colony not far from the modern Gioia Tauro in Calabria), 
refers in song to the struggle between the Centauri and Heracles over a pitcher of wine, a gift of Dionysus to the centraur 
Folus: "He took the right cup – it was a bowl / gigantic (nine litres / or thereabouts). He lifted it / he gulped down mixture 
offered him by Folus".