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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 2759714, member: 57495&quot;]From the time I started collecting Greek coins, an issue of Segesta featuring one of their fine hounds has been on my want list.&nbsp; A couple of months ago, I managed to score one that did not burn too big a hole in my pocket, and it finally arrived last week.&nbsp; It&#039;s pretty worn, but not unappealingly so, and well-centered enough on the obverse to have just about the entire hound on the flan.&nbsp; This li&#039;l doggie is a welcome addition to my coin pound <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> ... please do feel free to show your own dog coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]634055[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>SICILY, Segesta</b></p><p>AR Didrachm. 8.16g, 21.9mm. SICILY, Segesta, circa 440/35-420/16 BC. Hurter, Didrachmenprägung 129 (V39/R73); HGC 2, 1135. O: Hound standing left. R: Head of Segesta right, within linear circle.</p><p><br /></p><p>The dogs on these Segestan issues are thought to be Cirneco dell&#039;Etna, a breed of small Sicilian hound that were found throughout the island from ancient times.&nbsp; They were proficient rabbit-hunters and were especially plentiful around the area of Mount Etna.&nbsp; Claudius Aelian, in his <i>De Natura Animalium</i>, wrote that they were sacred to Adranos, the fire god that lived below the volcanic Etna, and that a thousand of the dogs guarded his temple precinct.&nbsp; They were said to greet in friendly fashion visitors to the temple and grove who were honest, but would sense if a person was a criminal, and would then attack them viciously.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]634058[/ATTACH] </p><p><font size="3">A Cirneco dell&#039;Etna</font></p><p><br /></p><p>While Segesta wasn&#039;t the only city in Sicily to strike coins with the image of the Cirneco, they used the type most prominently as the dog bore a link to their foundation myth.&nbsp; According to one tradition, a Trojan princess named Egesta (or Segesta) was sent to Sicily by her father to ensure her safety from a monster that was terrorizing the land.&nbsp; There, the river-god Krimisos fell in love with her and slept with her, after taking the form of a hound... or a bear <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie9" alt=":eek:" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.&nbsp; So, yes, on the face of it perhaps not such a great move on the part of dad, but from the union of river-god and princess was born Egestes, the hero who would go on to found the city of Segesta.&nbsp; If the female head that we see on Segestan coinage is Egesta, the mother of the city founder, perhaps then the hound is no ordinary dog but Krimisos himself in canine form.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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