192, Lot: 30. Estimate $100. Sold for $62. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Halos. 3rd century BC. Æ 20mm (5.06 g). Diademed head of Zeus Laphystios right / Phryxos clinging to ram right. Rogers 241; SNG Copenhagen 63. Near VF, dark brown patina, reverse weak.

Phryxos and his sister Helle, threatened by their resentful stepmother Ino, were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by their natural mother Nephele. Helle fell from the ram into the sea (the Hellespont, so named for her) but Phryxos clung to the ram until he arrived safely at Colchis. There he sacrificed the ram to Zeus, and after being warmly received by Aeëtes, the king of Colchis, presented the ram’s magnificent fleece to his host. It was this golden fleece that the Thessalian hero Jason, along with the other Argonauts, embarked on their epic journey to attain.