Jason and the Golden Fleece

170, Lot: 42. Estimate $150. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 500-478 BC. AR Obol (10mm, 0.63 g). Head of Jason right, wearing petasos / LAR, leech fibulae and caduceus. Herrmann-; SNG Copenhagen -. VF, some porosity.

A completely unknown type for Larissa. Jason is a famous native son of Thessaly, being the son of Aeson, king of Iolkos in Thessaly. Aeson was deprived of the throne by his half brother Pelias, and when Jason grew to manhood and confronted his uncle, the old king swore to abdicate if Jason brought him the Golden Fleece of Kolchis. The adventures of Jason and the Argonauts grew from this quest. The previously unrecorded reverse types appear to be an obscure allusion to the Golden Fleece; a caduceus as the symbol of Hermes, who provided the ram that bore the fleece, and a cloak pin for the fleece itself.