Hercules and the Deceased Lion of Cithaeron

Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 819. Estimate $7500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $7500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LYDIA, Thyateira. Severus Alexander. AD 222-235. Æ Medallion (48mm, 48.55 g, 6h). Mar. Pollianus, strategus. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Young Hercules standing facing, head right, holding club set on ground and deceased lion. Triton VIII, lot 768 = Lanz 177, lot 1026 (same dies). Good VF, dark green patina, minor smoothing in fields. Extremely rare, only the second specimen known.

While the popular story is that Hercules received his signature lion skin as a result of his First Labor, the slaying of the Nemean Lion, the second-century BC encyclopediast Apollodorus (Bibl. 2.4.9) relates that the hero received it as a result of his youthful encounter with the Lion of Cithaeron. Like that of Nemea, Hercules was commanded by the king of Thespiae to slay a lion which had been terrorizing the local countryside. Having succeeded, he received the skin as part of his reward, which he subsequently wore, along with the club, as his attributes.

The Hercules on this coin as an unbearded young man at the point of completing his first heroic deed would not have gone unnoticed on this medallion of Severus Alexander, whose similar youthful exploits might curb the rising power of the Sasanian Persians. By applying such an episode from the life of the patron deity associated with Alexander the Great, of whom Severus Alexander was the conscious namesake, the young emperor could, like his predecessor, bring the Persians to heel.