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Greek Coins :
Greek City States : SICILY. Akragas.
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SICILY. Akragas. - taher.0021
Origin: Europe
Circa: 409
BC
to 406
BC
Dimensions:
1.40" (3.6cm) high
Collection: Greek Coins
Medium: Silver
$24,000.00
Location: United States
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| Description |
The figures of the pair of eagles and the hare have
been successfully transferred to the larger medium,
and the enlargement of scale has been enhanced by
greater subtlety of detail. The scene is sometimes
connected with the famous first chorus from
Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon, describing the omen
sent by Zeus:
Two kings of birds, that seemed to bode
Great fortune to the kings of that great fleet.
Close to the palace, on spear side of the road,
One tawny-feathered, one white in the tail,
Perched in full view, they ravenously tear
The body of a pregnant hare
Big with her burden, now a living prey
In the last darkness of their unborn day.
While the reverse enlarges the tetradrachm’s design,
the obverse produces a bold and original variation of
the chariot. The chariot has abandoned its race in
earth, and has been translated into the chariot of the
sun god Helios in the sky. The effect of flight has
been created by omitting the ground line, and by the
positioning of a soaring eagle above the chariot and a
crab below, symbols of the sky and sea between
which the Sun’s chariot was thought to travel.
Diameter 1.40 Inch
- (taher.0021)
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