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Banner Artemide LVII
Lot # 178
Sicily. Syracuse. Second Democracy (466-406 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. ΣΥΡΑΚΟΣΙΩΝ. 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; [ΛEYKAΣΠIΣ in exergue]. HGC 2 1634; SNG ANS 308-11; SNG Lloyd 1396; Boehringer, Münzprägungen pl. II. 17. AR. 3.97 g. 18.50 mm. RR. Very rare and fascinating issue. Unsigned dies in the style of Eukleidas. Lovely iridescent tone. VF/Good VF. Leukaspis was a Sicilian hero who died in defense of the island during the fabulous invasion of Sicily by Heracles. The memory of this legend, reported by Diodorus (IV, 23, 5), survives in a series of Syracusan issue with the figure of an attacking warrior and ΛEYKAΣΠIΣ legend, dated c. 410-405 BC. The singularity of such a glorification of an essentially anti-Greek hero is explained by G. E. Rizzo as a curious survival in a multicultural context. Others scholars, such as E. J. P. Raven, have related this fact to Syracuse's need to prepare resistance against the Athenian expedition to the point of soliciting the support of the Sicels.