★ Extremely Rare Mythological Scene ★

THESSALY. Trikka. Circa 440-400 BC. Obol (Silver, 11.5 mm, 0.67 g, 12 h). Horse galloping to left. Rev. TP-I-KKA Herkyna, wearing long chiton, advancing right, head turned to look back, lifting folds of drapery with her right hand and holding goose closely with her left; all within shallow incuse square. BCD Thessaly II 773 ( same dies ). Extremely rare and interesting ( the slightly better Triton XV specimen was hammered for USD 6.500 in 2012 ). The obverse struck a little off center as is common for issue, otherwise, good very fine.

Herkyna was the Naiad-nymph of the stream Herkyna near Lebadeia in central Greece. She was a childhood companion of the goddess Persephone and a minor deity of the chthonian oracle of Trophonios. Pausania reports: They say that here Herkyna, when playing with Kore, the daughter of Demeter, held a goose which against her will she let loose. The bird flew into a hollow cave and hid under a stone; Kore entered and took the bird as it lay under the stone. The water flowed, they say, from the place where Kore took up the stone, and hence the river received the name Herkyna. (Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 39. 2, trans. Jones, Loeb Edition).