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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;zumbly, post: 3060931, member: 57495&quot;]Hey all, these past few weeks have been been unusually busy for me and I&#039;ve been driven into veritable lurking mode here on CT.&nbsp; Even though my coin activity in general has been close to zero (which is good since my budget is well into negative territory!), I wanted to share this recent arrival from an auction win back in March. </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve admired these Lokrian staters ever since I started collecting Greek coins and they&#039;ve always been right at the top of my want list.&nbsp; This example has a really beautiful, high-relief head of Demeter, but it was probably the intricate decorative details on the inside of Ajax&#039;s shield on the reverse that really sold me on it.&nbsp; I wish my pictures were better, because it is truly gorgeous in hand <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.</p><p><br /></p><p>As always, please share &#039;em if you&#039;ve got &#039;em!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]767781[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>LOKRIS, Lokri Opuntii</b></p><p>AR Stater. 12.09g, 24.9mm. LOKRIS, Opous, circa 350-340 BC. BCD Lokris-Phokis 60; McClean 5433; HGC 4, 992 var (control). O: Head of Demeter left, wreathed with grain. R: OΠONTIΩN, Ajax advancing right, brandishing sword and holding shield decorated with griffin and palmette; spear on ground behind, Λ between legs. </p><p><i>Ex CNG 63 (21 May 2003), lot 313 </i></p><p><br /></p><p>The Lokri Opuntii were a tribe of Greeks who inhabited a small area of coastal lands near Thermopylae.&nbsp; During the Greco-Persian Wars, they sent all their fighting men to join the small Greek army led by King Leonidas of Sparta at the Battle of Thermopylae.&nbsp; Just before Leonidas&#039;s last stand with his Spartan hoplites against Xerxes&#039;s massed armies, the surviving Opuntii were amongst those sent back to defend their homelands against the impending Persian invasion.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reverse of Lokrian staters depict their legendary hero, Ajax the Lesser, son of King Oileus, who according to the <i>Iliad </i>brought forty ships to the siege of Troy.&nbsp; During the sack of the city, Ajax desecrated the temple of Athena by abducting the princess Kassandra and raping her within its sanctuary.&nbsp; On his sea voyage home, an outraged Athena summoned a storm that wrecked his fleet and destroyed his ship with a bolt of lightning.&nbsp; When Ajax clung on to a rock and boasted that had survived even the best efforts of the gods, Poseidon broke the rock apart and caused him to drown. </p><p><br /></p><p>The wrath of Athena was not sated with Ajax&#039;s death, and she subsequently sent a plague to scourge the lands of the Lokrians.&nbsp; To atone for the great sacrilege of Ajax, the Lokrians were instructed by the Oracle of Delphi to send two maidens to Troy to serve as slaves at the temple of Athena Ilias each year for a thousand years.&nbsp; The maidens, however, would only enjoy this &#039;privilege&#039; if they managed to reach the temple alive, for the Trojans kept watch for their arrival and would proceed to hunt them down and kill them if they could.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The historian Timaios and the poet Kallimachos were amongst those who wrote of the tradition of the Lokrian Maidens, and as late as the 3rd century BC, it was recorded that Antigonos Gonatas was asked by the Lokrians to decide from which of their cities the tribute maidens should be chosen.&nbsp; Despite this millennia-long onus placed upon them by their ancestor, the Lokrians continued to venerate Ajax, placing him on their coinage and celebrating his feats at the <i>Aianteia</i>, a competitive festival they held at Opus. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]767782[/ATTACH]</p><p><i>Ajax and Cassandra</i>, by Solomon J. Solomon (1886)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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