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Banner Artemide LXI
Lot # 219
Sicily. Syracuse. Second Democracy (466-405 BC). AR Drachm, c. 410-405 BC. Obv. Head of Athena facing slightly left, wearing ornate triple-crested Attic helmet and necklace; ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ and four dolphins around. Rev. The hero Leukaspis, nude but for crested helmet, holding shield forward on left arm, right arm holding spear forward at his waist, advancing right; lit and garlanded altar in background; to right, forepart of ram lying on its back left; ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣ-Ι[ΩΝ] around, ΛEYKAΣΠIΣ in exergue. HGC 2 1364; SNG ANS 309-10 ; SNG Lloyd 1396; Boehringer, Münzprägungen pl. II. 17. AR. 4.10 g. 19.00 mm. RR. An exceptional and unusally well preserved specimen, with highly artistic unsigned dies in the style of Eukleidas. Rare and among the best examples appeared on market. About EF. Leukaspis, depicted as a naked warrior with helmet, shield and spear, was a Lycian hero who fought in the Trojan War in the following of King Sarpedon against the Greeks. When the city fell, the surviving Lycians joined Aeneas in fleeing to the Mediterranean, but a great storm hit the fleet. In Virgil's Aeneid, when Aeneas descended into the underworld under the lead of the Sibyl, he saw the spirit of Leucaspis, forced to remain outside and excluded due to death at sea and the lack of burial.