★ Seemingly unique ★

GALATIA. Pessinus. Geta, 209-212. Tetrassarion (Bronze, 31 mm, 15.17 g, 1 h). AYT K Π C ΓETAC AY Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Geta to right. Rev. ΠΕCCΙΝΟΥΤΙΩΝ Attis standing left, crescent at shoulders and above brow, holding a kerykeion (?) in right hand and resting left upon a grounded shield. BMC -. Lindgren & Kovacs -. Lindgren III -. SNG BN -. SNG Copenhagen -. SNG Hunterian -. SNG Righetti -. SNG von Aulock -. Unpublished . Well-centered and well-struck, with a very fine portrait, and with an attractive tan patina. Good very fine.

The god Attis had his origins in Pessinus, where his cult seems to have begun in the late 2nd millennium BC. The town lay in the lee of Mt. Agdistis, which the people of Pessinus revered as being the Great Mother Cybele. Cybele fell in love with Attis, but when she appeared to him he went mad, castrating himself in his delirium. This gruesome act of self mutilation prefigured the corybantes, who devoted themselves to Cybele.