★ Rare Mythological Type; Athena Ilias. ★

TROAS, Ilium, Crispina, circa 178-182 AD. AE.
Obv. ΚΡΙϹΠΙΝΑ ϹƐΒΑϹΤΗ.
Draped bust of Crispina (wearing stephane), right.
Rev: ΙΛΙƐΩΝ.
To left, cult statue of Athena of Ilium standing on short decorated column, right, wearing kalathos, holding transverse spear and Palladium; to right, cow suspended from tree, left; in tree, a victimarium grasping her horn, slaughtering her with knife.
Bellinger T 198-9, von Fritze, Ilion 85, BMC 67-8, SNG Cop 413; RPC IV.2 online, 131.
Rare mythological type. This scene shows the cow sacrificed by a victimarium to Athena Ilias for the founding of the city. Apollod. 3.12.3: Ilus went to Phrygia, and finding games held there by the king, he was victorious in wrestling. As a prize he received fifty youths and as many maidens, and the king, in obedience to an oracle, gave him also a dappled cow and bade him found a city wherever the animal should lie down; so he followed the cow. And when she was come to what was called the hill of the Phrygian Ate, she lay down; there Ilus built a city and called it Ilium. And having prayed to Zeus that a sign might be shown to him, he beheld by day the Palladium, fallen from heaven, lying before his tent. It was three cubits in height, its feet joined together; in its right hand it held a spear aloft, and in the other hand a distaff and spindle.
Condition: Very Fine.
Weight: 8.75 g.
Diameter: 25.60 mm.