297, Lot: 173. Estimate $100. Sold for $90. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

LYDIA, Gordus-Julia. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ (21mm, 7.14 g, 11h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / The Abduction of Persephone: Hades in galloping quadriga right, carrying off struggling Persephone; below horses, overturned flower basket. SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -; BMC 28; LS p. 84, 4. Fine, tan surfaces, porous, flan crack.

Hades fell in love with Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, and asked Zeus for permission to marry her. Fearing to offend his eldest brother by a downright refusal but also knowing that Demeter would not forgive him if Persephone were committed to the underworld, Zeus diplomatically answered that he could neither give nor withhold his consent. This act emboldened Hades to abduct Persephone as she was picking flowers in a meadow and carry her away in his horse-drawn chariot to the underworld.