Sosiopolis - Savior of the City

Sale: CNG 82, Lot: 269. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2009.  Sold For $5800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SICILY, Gela. Circa 440-430 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.88 g, 10h). Charioteer driving quadriga right, holding kentron and reins; above, Nike flying right, crowning horses; retrograde CEΛOION in exergue / Forepart of man-headed bull right; before, Sosipolis standing left, holding caduceus and placing wreath on bull's head; retrograde ΣOΣIΓOΛIΣ above. Jenkins, Gela, group V, 371 (O74/R150); SNG ANS 70; Pozzi 441; Jameson 587; McClean 2259; Kraay & Hirmer 159 (all from the same dies). VF, toned, areas of flat strike.

Ex Gemini IV (8 January 2008), lot 35; Triton II (1 December 1998), lot 158.

Sosipolis appears as a male name in Greek texts, but the figure that appears named as such on Geloan coins is clearly female. She has been variously identified with a water nymph, a Tyche (patron goddess of a city), a Nike (goddess of Victory) and Demeter, and was likely regarded as a multi-faceted goddess combining many attributes, a protectress of the city of Gela. Her first appearance is with this issue, crowning the bull of Gela with a wreath, signaling victory over the native Sikels by a combined Greek army in which Gela played a significant role. Her second and last mention is a more somber occasion, being a plea for divine intervention on an emergency coinage struck as Gela and many other Greek cities in the west and south of Sicily fell to Carthaginian invasion at the end of the 5th century BC.