Lucania, Herakleia AR Stater. Circa 350 BC. Head of Athena facing three-quarters to right, wearing triple-crested Phrygian helmet and necklace / ՒHPAKΛH[IΩN], Herakles standing facing, head to right, wielding [club] in right hand and wrestling the Nemean lion with left. AMB 107 (this coin); Holloway, Art, p. 17, 2 and pl. 131 (this coin); SNG Lloyd 270 (same dies); BMC 27 (same dies); SNG ANS 56 (same dies); Van Keuren 22 (same dies); ACGC 738 (same dies); Work 23; HN Italy 1375. 7.58g, 22mm, 11h.

Extremely Fine; attractive light cabinet tone. Extremely Rare; most likely the finest known example of this wonderfully artistic and highly desirable issue.

This coin published in H. A. Cahn et al., Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig: Griechische Münzen aus Grossgriechenland und Sizilien (Basel, 1988);
This coin published in R. Ross Holloway, Art and Coinage in Magna Graecia (Bellinzona, 1978);
Ex Athos D. Moretti Collection, Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 13, 8 October 1998, lot 107.

This coin was part of the renowned Athos D. Moretti Collection, amassed over 50 years from 1940-1993 and exhibited at the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig during which time it was published in the exhibition catalogue in 1998. The coin also features in an earlier publication by the acclaimed archaeologist R. Ross Holloway celebrating the coinage of Magna Graecia.

Herakleia, named after the legendary Greek hero Herakles, was founded in 433/2 BC by Tarentum with colonists from the city and from Siris. (Diod. 12.36.4) It became an important centre in the fourth century as the seat of an alliance of local Greek cities against the native Lucanians and Bruttian, and issued extensive coinage with the characteristic combination of a profile portrait of Athena and its namesake, Herakles, wrestling the Nemean lion. On this extremely rare coin, however, Athena is portrayed three-quarters facing, following the model of Eukleidas’ beautiful portrait of Athena on exceedingly rare Syracusan tetradrachms. The die-engraver has rendered with great artistic flair her triple-crested Phrygian helmet and dynamic curls. This frontal portrait is dominated by the searching gaze for which Athena was famous, known throughout antiquity from as early as the time of Homer as ‘γλαυκῶπις’ or ‘bright-eyed’, an adjective derived from the word for ‘owl’, a bird with which she is closely linked.

The sensational reverse depicts Herakles as a paragon of physical strength, the scene capturing a split second of dramatic motion which accentuates his muscular legs and torso, while the detail with which his focused, determined expression is accentuated communicates the grave danger of his deadly fight with the Nemean lion. Once it was slain in the first of Herakles’ famous twelve labours, the lion’s pelt, which myth held was impenetrable by any weapon, became an iconic attribute of the hero and features on coinage throughout the Greek world. Herakles’ dynamic contrapposto stance here bears a striking similarity to the splendid contemporary Hermes staters of Pheneos in north-east Arkadia (eg. BCD Peloponnesos 1615). While this archetypal scene with a long history in Greek art had generally by this period evolved into a show of muscular strength influenced by the lithe athleticism of the wrestling ground, our extremely rare coin shows Herakles swinging back from the lion to deliver a blow with his club (Ross Holloway, 1978, p.56). The same type was later adopted by Dionysius of Syracuse for his gold coinage, reinforcing the suggestion that this first and most famous of Herakles’ labours may have been chosen to symbolise the struggle of Hellenism against the barbarism of the native Italic tribes. (Kraay, 1976, p.193).