No Reserve

Islands off Thrace, Thasos AR Stater. Circa 520-510 BC. Naked and bearded ithyphallic satyr with goat's ear and hoofs, hair arranged in long plaits over back, carrying off maenad, wearing sleeved chiton, large circular ear-ring, hair also in plaits, ring and plain necklace, left arm lowered, right raised in air / Quadripartite incuse square partly filled. Cf. Svoronos, HPM, pl. 10, 7-11; Le Rider, Guide de Thasos 1967, pl. 1, 2; idem, Guide de Thasos 2000, fig. 268. 9.95g, 22mm.

Near Extremely Fine.

Ex Roma Numismatics Ltd., Auction VII, 22 March 2014, lot 480 (hammer: GBP 3,250).

Ritual abduction as a form of exogamy was frequent in tribal societies. The reference here is probably to the cult of Dionysos and is perhaps modelled on one of the stone reliefs for which it was famous for, as later with the Herakles archer type, Guide de Thasos, 2000, fig. 85. For a very similar archaic treatment of the same satyr abducting a maenad theme see J. Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period, fig. 210, a sculpture from Delphi dated to about 525 BC.