Tiny but Mighty : Baby Herakles the Snake-Strangler

If my last coin purchases of the year don't reach me in the next week or so, the two coins that dropped into the mail box today will be my last NEWP arrivals of 2016. Both are great coins, but this is the one I'm all excited about. It's a rare diobol of Tarentum which shows on its reverse baby Herakles wrestling two snakes. Word of caution : if you don't like scenes of hapless animals getting the life squeezed out of them by infant demigods, now is the time to hit the Back button.

One of Zeus's many trysts with a mortal woman was with Alkmene, the wife of King Amphitryon of Thebes. Hera, Zeus's own wife, quickly transfered the jealousy she felt at his infidelity to the baby boy that Alkmene eventually gave birth to. One can further imagine her being less than amused when the child was named Herakles, "the glorious gift of Hera". As a final dose of cosmically ironic insult added to injury, Hera once even allowed Herakles to nurse from her breast, not knowing his identity, and in the process giving him additional divine powers. Her slightly poor reaction to all this was to send two monstrous snakes to kill the baby in his crib. Naturally, this didn't succeed, and the infant demigod took up the serpents like playthings and strangled them to death, thus accomplishing his first heroic deed and earning himself the name Herakliskos Drakonopignon, Herakles the Snake-Strangler.

Please feel free to show your diobols of Tarentum or any coins with baby Herakles!


CALABRIA, Tarentum
Circa 275-212 BC
AR Diobol. 0.98g, 10mm. Vlasto 1460-1461; HN Italy 1068. O: Head of Athena right, wearing crested helmet, decorated with Skylla. R: Herakliskos Drakonopignon: the infant demigod Herakles strangling two snakes; ΦIN monogram to left, [ΛE (ligate)] in exergue.
Ex E.E. Clain Stefanelli Collection
Notes: Rare. Of the 195 diobols recorded in the Taranto Hoard of 1883, only 11 feature this reverse type, and of those all have Athena facing left and not right. The Vlasto Collection included 2 specimens, with Athena's helmet decoration described as "Sea-horse(?)" due to wear and slightly poor centering. This example, despite its odd-shaped flan, has a complete helmet that quite clearly shows the device is the Skylla, as on the more common variety with Athena facing left.

 

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WOW!! That's such a fantastic little coin!!! Incredible details and eye-appeal!!

Gorgeous photo and I love the write-up!!

I'll bet Steve and TIF will be a little jealous too LOL

 

I gave you a "like" just for the thread title...

...sounds like a really bad "B" movie...! ;-)

Edit: "Snakes... why did it have to be snakes!" - Indiana Jones
(most definitely NOT a "B-movie"!)

 

Z that is just the coolest coin I have ever seen

 

Great coin, love both sides & tone!

 

Thanks for the compliments, guys .

And I have this a Like because I like bad B-movies .

 

You have an incredible coin! Beautiful detail, great story: just a nice diobol to have! Great job @zumbly !!! Lovit!

 

Ya gotta love the detail on these tiny coins.

 

The detail on a coin that size is just incredible!

 

What a marvelous type and so skillfully rendered on such a small coin. A real treasure!

 

Great and interesting coin Z!

A scene from one of the movies from my childhood makes sense now:

 

Heh... what a little bully, eh.

I may be misrecalling, but I think at least one other CTer (@Bing?) has one of the many varieties showing Herakles wrestling the lion. Some of those are remarkably well composed and rendered (and still on my want list).

 

Wow, Z-Bro => you are definitely one of the CT-Brat-Pack



... great coin (I'm jealous)

Yah, I'm fairly sure that TIF is jealous too?

 

Two Herakles but all grown up and fighting lions

 

... hey, can Doug hang-out too?



=> just jokes ... it's a total coin party



I fricken love all of you coiners!!!

 

Your memory is still good cousin Z.

TARAS, CALABRIA
AR Diobol
OBVERSE: Head of Athena in crested helmet left decorated with Skylla
REVERSE: Herakles kneeling right, strangling lion
Struck at Taras 380-334 BC
1.2g, 11mm
Vlasto 1316

 

I don't need another theme to collect, but it looks like I'm going to get one anyway .

 

I'm pretty sure most of the time we're all just partying in Doug's House .

 

It's Doug's house one weekend, Steve's another, and once in a while we all go to the Caribbean to party with Hermione.

 

To the Caribbean Queen's?