The Myth of Attis

Sale: Triton XIII, Lot: 174. Estimate $30000.  Closing Date: Monday, 4 January 2010.  Sold For $30000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MYSIA, Kyzikos. 5th-4th centuries BC. EL Stater (16.08 g). Head of Attis right, wearing Phrygian cap; below, tunny right / Quadripartite incuse punch. Von Fritze I 142 (same obv. die); SNG France 291; Von Aulock -; Boston MFA 1521; Gulbenkian 644. Choice EF. Rare, and among the finest.

Ex New York Sale IV (17 January 2002), lot 191.

The celebrated electrum coinage of Kyzikos began in the second half of the sixth century, but is at its most varied and interesting during the classical period. These staters were regarded as gold coins and circulated throughout a large area along with the gold darics of Persian Empire. On all of the coins of Kyzikos, large or small, was engraved the tunny-fish (θυννος), which constituted an important product of the Kyzikene economy. The portrait on this particular issue is thought to be Attis, the consort of Phrygian Kybele. The androgynous Kybele/Agdistis was castrated by the gods, and from the severed parts grew an almond tree, from which Attis sprang. Attis appears infrequently in Greek art, but he was raised in status when the Romans adopted the cult of Kybele.