Hector Setting Fire to the Achaean Ships

301, Lot: 170. Estimate $300. Sold for $950. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

TROAS, Ilium. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (26mm, 13.16 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / ΕKTΩP ΙΛIΕΩN around, Hector standing right, holding shield, about to hurl a torch at one of two Greek ships with rowers. Bellinger T239; BMC 91. Good Fine, green patina, some roughness. Very rare and interesting mythological type.

Tell me now, Muses, you who live on Olympus, how the Achaean ships were first set on fire.

Hector charged at Ajax and struck with his long sword at the ash pole near the socket at the top, shearing the head away, and leaving Telamonian Ajax brandishing a useless pike, its bronze blade clanging to the ground far away. Ajax shuddered deep in his mighty heart at the gods’ actions, and knew that Zeus the Thunderer, on high, intent on Trojan victory, was bringing all their battle plans to naught. So he fell back out of range, then the Trojans threw blazing brands into the swift ship, and a stream of living flame instantly engulfed it.

Iliad XVI:112-114