Hercules’ Seventh Labor - The Cretan Bull

Sale: Triton XI, Lot: 537. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 7 January 2008.  Sold For $1200. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34mm, 23.64 g, 12h). Labor of Hercules type. Dated RY 10 (AD 146/7). AYT K T AIL ADR ANTwNEINOC CEB EVC, laureate head right / Hercules standing left, holding with both hands reverted head of Cretan Bull standing left behind; Bull has right foreleg and tail raised; L DEKATOY (date) around. Köln -; Voegtli types 10a and 12j var. (date); BMC 1050 = Emmett 1549.10; Dattari (Savio) 12279 (same dies); Milne - . VF, brown and olive patina, light overall porosity.

From the James E. Cain Collection.

Compelled to capture the bull as his seventh Labor, Hecules sailed to Crete. There, Minos the king of Crete, gave the hero permission to take the bull away, as it had been causing destruction on the island. Hercules strangled the Bull with his bare hands, and shipped back to Athens. Although Eurystheus wished to sacrifice the Bull to Hera, the goddess refused the sacrifice because it reflected glory on her sworn enemy. The bull was released and wandered into the town of Marathon, where it became known as the Marathonian Bull.