Zeus and Ganymede

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 479. Estimate $2000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $4500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TROAS, Ilium. Marcus Aurelius. AD 161-180. Æ “Sestertius” (35mm, 22.12 g, 1h). AVT KAI MA AVPHL ANTWNEINOC A, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ILIEWN, Ganymede, wearing chlamys and Phrygian cap, seated right on rock outcropping set on ground line, leaning back on right hand and extending left hand to large eagle standing left; behind eagle, low column surmounted by statue of Athena Ilios standing left. Bellinger T149; Von Fritze, Münzen 61; SNG von Aulock 7612 (same dies); cf. SNG Copenhagen 411. VF, blue-black patina, light roughness on obverse. Extremely rare and struck with dies of fine style.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

Ganymede was the son of Tros, founder of Troy. A youth of great beauty, he was abducted by Zeus while the young man was tending his flocks on Mt. Ida. Carried to Olympus either by an eagle, or Zeus himself in aquiline form, Ganymede served as the god’s cupbearer in place of Hebe, as well as his eromenos. This arrangement angered Hera to such a degree that she would abandon the Trojans in their war against the Greeks. To recompense Tros for the loss of his son, Zeus provided him with a pair of horses so swift, they could cross over water, and which were the ancestors of the horses for which the Trojans were renowned.