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Important copyright information:
The data below is presented by permission of the copyright holder(s). Reproduction is allowed only by authorization from Classical Numismatic Group.
| Classical Numismatic Group > Triton VI | Auction date: 14 January 2003 |
| Lot number: 564 | |
| Lot description: BITHYNIA, Prusa(?). Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian. Died 130 AD. Æ 13mm (1.27 gm). Estimate $1500 BITHYNIA, Prusa(?). Antinoüs, favorite of Hadrian. Died 130 AD. Æ 13mm (1.27 gm). Struck under Commodus, 180-192 AD. ANTI, bare-headed and draped bust of Antinoüs left; caduceus over shoulder / [PROU]CA-EWN(?), a bird (eagle?) standing right. Apparently unpublished, but cf. Blum, pg. 44, 12 and Waddington pl. XLII, 6 for a coin of Commodus from Bithynium-Claudiopolis with a similar portrait of Antinoüs. EF/VF, dark green patina. ($1500) The cult of the deified Antinoüs was established by Hadrian after his lover's drowning in the Nile in 130 AD. The loci of the cult were in Bithynia, the land of his birth, and Egypt, the land of his death. Alexandria minted a range of bronzes with Antinoüs' portrait immediately after his demise, while cities in Bithynia and elsewhere struck coins for several decades afterward, attesting to the persistance of the cult long after Hadrian's death. Some portraits of Antinoüs depict him with a uraeus crown, thus assimilating him with Harpokrates, others with a caduceus, symbol of Hermes. The reverse of the present coin, whose precise attribution is problematic, may not be an eagle (thus the tentative assignment to Prusa), but rather a cock. This could be taken as a symbol of Ganymede, alluding to another individual who is in transition between earth, the underworld, and the heavens. |  |
