Corinthe - Statère (c. 500-480). Rarissime et... Lot 39

Corinthe - Statère (c. 500-480). Rarissime et magnifique exemplaire. Exemplaire de la vente Heritage 3021 du 6 janvier 2013, N° 21211. 8.62g - BCD 18 var. - cf. Ravel I, 59, 103 (P-- / T72) Superbe – AU Such early examples are rare, and this attractive specimen in particular with Pegasus flying left. These coins, struck in the seaport of Corinth in Peloponnese, south-central Greece, were used all around the Mediterranean, alike the Athenian ‘owls’: for example, the BCD specimen of the type Ravel 103 (Lanz 105, N°15) was found in Selinunte (south-western Sicily). The nickname of such coins, ‘colts’, refers to the depiction of Pegasus, a colt being a young male horse under the age of four. The presence of Pegasus on the obverse allows to identify the figure on the reverse as Athena Chalinitis – Athena the tamer of horses. “ Athena, they say, was the divinity who gave most help to Bellerophontes, and she delivered to him Pegasus, having herself broken in and bridled him” (Pausanias 2.4.1). She wears her Corinthian helmet in the way - pushed back on the head - that soldiers wore it when nofit ghting (therefore in a peaceful manner). The symbol below Pegasus is a ‘koppa’, an early Greek letter derived from the Phoenician ‘qoph’ which was later replaced by the ‘kappa’, and was used for the spelling of Corinth - Q???????.