Hera’s Second Love

Triton XIV, Lot: 315. Estimate $10000. Sold for $11000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLANDS off IONIA, Samos. Circa 453/2-440/39 BC. AR Tetradrachm (23mm, 12.99 g, 6h). Samian standard. Dated CY 5 (449/8 BC). Facing lion scalp / Forepart of ox right; olive branch to left, ΣA above, E (date) below; all within incuse square. Barron 75 (A35/P75); SNG Copenhagen 1681 (same obv. die); BMC 93 (same dies); Traité II 1799 (same obv. die as illustration); SNG Newham Davis 287. Good VF, lightly toned. Well centered and struck on a broad flan. Excellent metal.

Ex Triton XII (5 January 2009), lot 315; Hauck & Aufhäuser 19 (21 March 2006), lot 150; Giessener Münzhandlung 69 (18 November 1994), lot 361.

Samos was famous in the ancient world for being the home of the Heraion, a temple to Hera. Vergil tells us that Hera loved Samos “second best” to Carthage (Aeneid, I.18). It can be argued that the designs on this coin relate to Hera, whose worship was obviously an important aspect of the culture of the island.

The ox was a symbol of Hera going back to the earliest days of Greece. In the Iliad she is often given the epithet of “ox-eyed.” Indeed, Io, the mythological daughter of a river-god and lover of Zeus, was a priestess of Hera. There is a ceramic red figure pot in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Accession Number 08.417) depicting Io in the form of an ox. Oxen were not only representative of Hera but also apparently used in her worship. In the famous story in Herodotus, when Kroisos asks Solon who the happiest man in the world is, the second example Solon gives is Kleobis and Biton; “there was a festival of Hera in Argos, and their mother absolutely had to be conveyed to the temple by a team of oxen” (1.31.1). Cleobis and Biton proceeded to carry the cart themselves and get their mother to the temple in time. This anecdote suggests an important function of oxen in the rituals of Hera.

Joan V. O’Brien, in her book, The Transformation of Hera: A Study of Ritual, Hero, and the Goddess in the Iliad (Lanham, MD, 1993), recognizes an early “ox goddess” in the region of Mycenae later identified as Hera (p. 144). We know that Hera was an important deity in the region of Mycenae because in the Iliad she tells us, “The three cities that I love best of all are Argos and Sparta, Mycenae with streets as broad as Troy’s” (IV.60). It is with this in mind that we can see the significance of lions in relation to Hera, thereby explaining the obverse of this coin. The famed Lion Gate at Mycenae is thought to have possibly been a dedication to Hera. O’Brien argues that the symbolism on the Gate, which was constructed circa 1300 BC, suggests the importance of a sort of “goddess of vegetation, war, and sovereignty” (p. 164). It seems likely that this deity was an archaic precursor who was later identified as Hera. Therefore, the lions displayed so prominently on the Gate are supposed to represent Hera. Lions being used as symbols of Hera can be seen elsewhere. There is a famous vase in the Antikenmussen in Berlin (F 2536) showing the Judgment of Paris, in which the goddesses Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera, are all shown with identifying symbols; Aphrodite holds Eros and a myrtle leaf, Athena holds a spear and helmet, and Hera wears a crown and holds a miniature lion and staff.

This coin is a superb example of this wonderfully symbolic series of coins. The island of Samos must have been very proud of its patron goddess, as these symbols of Hera, the lion and the ox, were the primary types used on almost all of its coinage over the course of the island's ancient history.