CNG 84, Lot: 848. Estimate $750. Sold for $625. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CRETE, Uncertain. Trajan. AD 98-117. AR Drachm (16mm, 3.25 g, 6h). Laureate bust right, slight drapery on far shoulder / Diktynna seated left on rocks, holding uncertain object and the infant Zeus; to either side of her, an armed Curete standing left. Svoronos, Numismatique pl. XXXIII, 23-4; SNG Copenhagen 578; BMC 16. Near VF. Very rare.

Zeus was the son of the Titans Cronos and Rhea. Cronos, fearing any offspring would usurp his position as principle deity, would swallow each child Rhea gave birth to. Upon the birth of Zeus, however, Rhea tricked Cronos by presenting a swaddled rock in place of the newborn god. Cronos swallowed the rock and Zeus was secretly taken to the island of Crete, where he was reared by nymphs in a cave in Mount Dikte. A popular cult to Zeus Diktaios lasted in the area until the Christian period.

The cult of Diktynna predates Mycanean influence in the region. As a virgin goddess associated with nature and hunting (she is credited with inventing a crucial hunting tool, the net), she naturally became associated with Artemis. In one of ancient myth’s numerous perplexing and anachronistic details, she is often described as being the daughter of Zeus and Karme.