Zeus & Ganymede

303, Lot: 197. Estimate $200. Sold for $2300. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Hadrianopolis. Caracalla. AD 198-217. Æ (29mm, 13.84 g, 6h). Laureate head right / Ganymede standing right, wearing Phrygian cap and holding shepherd’s crook over shoulder, beside eagle standing on low column to right. Jurukova, Hadrianopolis 314 (V164/R305); Varbanov 3522. Good VF, green patina. Scarce type.

From Group CEM.

Ganymede was the son of Tros, founder of Troy. A youth of great beauty, he was abducted by Zeus while the young man was tending his flocks on Mt. Ida. Carried to Olympus either by an eagle, or Zeus himself in aquiline form, Ganymede served as the god’s cupbearer in place of Hebe, as well as his eromenos. To recompense Tros for the loss of his son, Zeus provided him with a pair of horses so swift they could cross over water, which became the ancestors of the horses for which the Trojans were renowned.