Hercules’ Penultimate Labor - The Apples of the Hesperides – Third Known Specimen

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 529. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $4000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34mm, 19.99 g, 12h). Labor of Hercules type. Dated RY 5 (AD 141/2). AVT K T AIL ADR • ANTwNINOC CEB EYC, laureate head right / Hercules standing right, lion skin over left shoulder, cradling club in his left arm and reaching right hand for Apples of the Hesperides hanging from branch of tree to right; the serpent Ladon coiled around trunk; L/E (date) to left. Köln -; Voegtli types 7b and 12q var. (date); BMC -; cf. Dattari (Savio) 8496; Milne -; Emmett 1554.5 = CNA XIII, 209 (same rev. die); Münzhandlung Basel 6, 660 (same rev. die). Good VF, gray-black patina with areas of green deposits on reverse. Extremely rare, only the third known specimen of this year and bust type, and the only one not in a public collection.

From the James E. Cain Collection.

Because he had been assisted in completing some of his earlier tasks, Hercules was compelled to undergo two more labors. The first of these was to steal the Apples of the Hesperides, nymphs who lived in a grove at the far western edge of the world. Hercules tricked the Titan Atlas, whose task it was to hold up the heavens, to retrieve the apples in return for holding up the heavens while he did so. Having accomplished the task, Atlas was reticent to give up his freedom, and told Hercules that he would take back the apples to Mycenae. Once again, Hercules tricked the Titan, requesting that Atlas hold the heavens, whil Hercules adjusted his cloak to be more comfortable.