Hercules’ Fourth Labor - The Erymanthean Boar//Ex Dattari Collection

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 536. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $5750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34mm, 26.01 g, 12h). Dated RY 10 (AD 146/7). AVT K T AIL ADR ANTwNEINOC CEB EVC, laureate head right / Hercules, wearing lion skin, standing right, club to left, holding the Erymanthian Boar on his left shoulder with both hands, displaying it to Eurystheus, who stands left in a crater at Hercules’ feet, arms raised in terror; L DE KATOV (date) around. Köln -; Voegtli type 12f; Dattari (Savio) 8484 = Ramage 128 (this coin); BMC 1046; Dattari 2596; Milne 1911 = Emmett 1544.10. Good VF, black-green patina with lighter olive overtones, some smoothing in obverse fields.

From the James E. Cain Collection. Ex David Simpson Collection (Triton V, 15 January 2002), lot 1783; Spink Numismatic Circular XCI.3 (April, 1983), no. 1793; Dattari Collection.

Hercules, made temporarily insane by the goddess Hera, murdered his wife and children. Once recovered, and distressed by his actions, Hercules consulted the Delphic Oracle to find a means of expiating his sin. As a punishment, Apollo replied that the hero would have to serve his cousin Eurystheus, the king Tiryns, a man whom Hercules despised, for a period of twelve years. Because Eurystheus also hated Hercules, he devised a series of ten feats of such difficulty that they would be either insurmountable, or Hercules would die in the attempt. Because Hercules received assistance in completing two of the tasks, Eurystheus added two more. Each labor became more fantastic, and eventually Hercules was compelled to break the bonds of the supernatural in order to complete his task. Once he accomplished the Labors, Hercules was absolved of his guilt, and preceded to perform many other heroic feats.

The Erymanthean Boar resided in a grove sacred to Artemis near Mount Erymanthus in Arcadia, and would descend from the wilderness to wreck havoc on the surrounding farms and groves. While hunting for it, Hercules visited his friend, the centaur Pholus, who lived in a cave on the mountain. Hungry and thirsty, the centaur provided him with food, but shied from offering him the wine he had because it did not belong to him, and was for the use of all the centaurs. Heracles nevertheless opened the jar, and, smelling the wine’s aroma, the other centaurs became excited and intoxicated. A fight soon ensued, and Heracles slew a number of centaurs with arrows poisoned by the blood of the Hydra. During the melee, another of Heracles’ friends, the kindly centaur Chiron, was accidentally wounded. Although Chiron did not die, as he was immortal, he did experience great pain. Heracles attempted to medicate the wound, but his ministrations were of little avail. In return for his kindness, however, Chiron offered advice to the hero as to how he could capture the Boar. Once again pursuing the creature, he easily trapped the Boar by pursuing it through the mountain snows until the creature collapsed from exhaustion. Netting the animal, he carried it back to Tiryns and presented it to Eurystheus. Frightened by the Boar, Eurystheus hid himself in a large bronze crater.