THASOS SILVER STATER – ITHYPHALLIC SATYR AND NYMPH TYPE – CHOICE VF NGC GRADED GREEK THRACE COIN (Inv. 19282)

$1,800.00

19282. THRACIAN ISLANDS. THASOS. 500–450 BC
Silver Stater, 8.86 g, 21 mm.
Obv. Ithyphallic satyr abducting nymph. Rev. Quadripartite incuse square.
Le Rider, Thasiennes 5; HGC 6, 331.
NGC graded CHOICE VF, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5.

From the late sixth century BC, the standard type for Thasian coinage depicted an ithyphallic satyr, perhaps to be identified with Silenus, the drunken boon companion of the wine–god Dionysus, carrying off a protesting nymph. Thrace, which included few Greek cities, except along the coast, had a reputation in Greek thought as a land of wilderness, where the powers of nature held sway, rather than the civilization of the Greek polis. As such, it was exactly the sort of place where rustic fertility spirits like satyrs were thought to dwell. These half–man and half–goat creatures were generally believed to inhabit the lonely and wild places of the world, like caves, forests and mountaintops. The satyrs were renowned for their excessive love of wine and music, and especially for their uncontrolled lust, which led them to carry off nymphs that took their fancy, usually with disastrous and comedic results.