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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ancientnut, post: 2336798, member: 73212&quot;]Although I have tried to limit my collection to Magna Graecia, I couldn&#039;t resist this electrum stater of Kyzikos. It has a special appeal to me. I have been a student of Greek tragedy for more than 20 years and have more than 100 books of translations and analyses of these fifth century plays. Of the many thousands of tragedies which were staged in antiquity, a mere 32 survive intact. At the festival of Dionysus, each playwright usually presented a series of three plays relating to the same mythological theme. The only trilogy surviving from antiquity is the famous Oresteia of Aeschylus, named after Orestes, around whom the action centers, and which was first performed in 458 BC. For those who are not familiar with this masterpiece, here is a summary:</p><p><br /></p><p>AGAMEMNON: Orestes was a child when his father Agamemnon left for the Trojan War. Orestes’ mother Clytemnesta takes up with another man and when Agamemnon returns 20 years later, she murders him in his bath.</p><p><br /></p><p>THE LIBATION-BEARERS: Orestes and his friend, Pylades, arrive at the tomb of Agamemnon to find Orestes’ sister, Electra, and they pray to their father to aid in avenging his murder. Orestes and Pylades go to the palace, where they enter by trickery and Orestes murders his mother. The nightmare begins! Now enter primeval female demons known as the Erinyes, or Furies. They arise to spur a person to avenge an injustice committed against a family member. Orestes flees from them, realizing he has been caught in a classic Catch-22: The Furies would have tormented him until he avenged his father’s murder, but now that he has killed the murderer, his mother, they pursue and torment him for matricide!!</p><p><br /></p><p>EUMENIDES: Pursued by the Furies, Orestes flees to the temple of Apollo at Delphi and supplicates himself at the omphalos (“navel”), a stone which represented the center, or navel, of the world, which was located there. The opening scene of the Eumenides is represented on this coin (I don’t know why there are duplicate photos of many of the lots in this sale!?):</p><p><a href="https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=2505&amp;category=52260&amp;lot=2113858" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=2505&amp;category=52260&amp;lot=2113858" rel="nofollow">https://www.sixbid.com/browse.html?auction=2505&amp;category=52260&amp;lot=2113858</a></p><p>Kyzikos, Mysia, electrum stater, 450-430 BC, 16.00 g. OBV: Orestes kneeling left, [holding sword and] resting left arm on omphalos; below, tunny left / REV: Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze 165; SNG BN -.</p><p><i>Ex: The New York Sale IV, January 17, 2002, Lot 188.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>The sword in Orestes’ hand, which, unfortunately, is not on the flan in this example, might be fending off the Furies, but it is also an allusion to the recent murder of his mother. Although the sword is missing on this example, the head or Orestes has much more detail than the other three examples I have found:</p><p>The New York Sale XXV: Pitted and missing most details:</p><p><a href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=923209" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=923209" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=923209</a></p><p>CNG: Missing most of the head of Orestes and some of the sword:</p><p><a href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=293373" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=293373" rel="nofollow">http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=293373</a></p><p>The New York Sale XXVII: The most complete example, but again no detail in the head of Orestes:</p><p><a href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1178810" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1178810" rel="nofollow">http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1178810</a></p><p><br /></p><p>I am very happy to have acquired this example which features a very detailed head with expressive features. Poor Orestes. Is that fear I see...?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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