Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 92. Estimate $5000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $5000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLANDS off THRACE, Thasos. Circa 480-463 BC. AR Stater (8.60 g). Satyr advancing right, carrying off protesting nymph / Quadripartite incuse square. Le Rider, Thasiennes 5; SNG Ashmolean 3661-2; SNG Copenhagen 1010-1. EF, toned, underlying luster, slight die shift on obverse.

Nymphs were female spirits associated with a particular location; depending on the area, this included mountains, groves, springs, rivers, woods, valleys, and grottoes. Often these nymphs were involved with the gods, and they are frequently companioned with Artemis, Apollo, Dionysos, and the rustic Pan and Hermes. Often in mythology, the eponymous founder of a city or town becomes married to a local nymph.

Occasionally, nymphs accompanied Dionysos and formed part of the Thiasos, or ecstatic retinue which included mainads, or female devotees of the god, whose actions included wild orgiastic trances and the consumption of raw flesh. Dionysos was also attended by satyrs, goat-men, who constantly attempted to engage the mainads in sexual intercourse.