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| Nomos AG > obolos 22 | Auction date: 6 March 2022 |
| Lot number: 533 | |
| Lot description: TROAS. Dardanus. Commodus, as Caesar, 166-177. Diassarion (Bronze, 25 mm, 6.76 g, 12 h), 166-177. Μ ΑΥΡΗΛΙΟϹ ΚΟΜΟΔΟC CAICAP (retrograde) Draped and cuirassed bust of Commodus to left. Rev. ΔΑΡΔΑΝΕΩΝ Ganymede, borne away by a large eagle (= Zeus) with spread wings who clasps him from behind, standing left, nude but for his Phrygian cap, holding a lagobolon in his left hand and raising his right above him to stroke the eagle's beak. Unpublished type! Cf. & corr. RPC online 3551, for a coin of Dardanos struck from the same obverse die. This piece apart from completing the obverse legend of the RPC 3552, it indicates that they were both minted during the period that Comodus was a Caesar and not an Augustus as noted in RPC. Very fine. From the collection of a scholar. The tale of Zeus's infatuation with the Trojan shepherd Ganymede is well known: seeing him, and being transfixed by his beauty, Zeus transformed himself into an eagle and carried the youth off from his flocks on Mt. Ida to Mt. Olympus. The scene is found on a number of Roman Provincial issues, primarily from Ilion and Dardanos in the Troad, but known of them show precisely this version: here Ganymede is standing straightly at attention with his legs together, still holding his hunter's lagobolon and wearing his Phyrgian cap, but rather affectionally stroking the eagle's beak. Presumably Ganymede must have realized that his fate was not to be the same as that of the usual member of his flock when carried off by an eagle! Starting price: 100 CHF |  |
