Tegea Receives Divine Protection

Sale: CNG 76, Lot: 606. Estimate $300.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 12 September 2007.  Sold For $860. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ARKADIA, Tegea. Circa 50-25 BC. Æ Hexachalkon (6.36 g, 12h). Head of Aleos right, wearing tainia; ALEOS to left / Kepheus standing right, holding shield and spear, receiving lock of Medusa’s hair from Athena, who is standing left, holding spear; between them, monograms above and below Sterope standing right, holding vessel. BCD Peloponnesos 1749; SNG Copenhagen 314. VF, green patina, a hint of roughness.

From the Christopher Morcom Collection.

The power of the gorgon Medusa was so great that her severed head became a natural apotropaic device. Although Zeus was known to have occasionally employed its protective ability, it became traditionally associated with Athena in the form of the aegis, a scaly cape fringed with snakes, upon which the head of Medusa was attached. Rarely is the head of Medusa associated with mortals, because of its ability to petrify living flesh. The legendary history of Tegea, however, provides one such occasion. According to Apollodoros (Bib. 2.7.3), Herakles wished to engage the assistance of King Kepheus of Tegea in Herakles’ war against the Lakedaimonians. In return for his help, Kepheus required some protection for the city, fearing an attack by the Argives in his absence. Herakles, then, received a jar containing a lock of Medusa’s hair from Athena (Pausanias 8.47.5, however, says Kepheus received the hair directly from Athena), which he then gave to Kepheus’ daughter, Sterope. If the enemy advanced upon Tegea, she could drive them off by holding up the lock of hair three times with her face turned away, while standing on the city walls.