Argus Recognizes Ulysses

309, Lot: 223. Estimate $100. Sold for $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

C. Mamilius Limetanus. 82 BC. AR Serrate Denarius (19mm, 3.75 g, 10h). Rome mint. Draped bust of Mercury right, wearing winged petasus; I and caduceus behind / Ulysses walking right, holding staff and extending hand towards his dog, Argus. Crawford 362/1; Sydenham 741; Mamilia 6. Good VF, toned, obverse off center.

The obverse and reverse of this coin refer to the lineage of the gens Mamilia, who claimed their descent from Mamilia, the daughter of Telegonus, the son of Ulysses and Circe, and a descendant of Mercury. The reverse scene depicts the moment when, returning home from his long wanderings in the guise of a beggar so as to surprise and kill the many suitors of his wife Penelope, Ulysses' aged dog Argus recognizes him: 

Soon as he perceived
Long-lost Ulysses nigh, down fell his ears
Clapped close, and with his tail glad sign he gave
Of gratulation, impotent to rise,
And to approach his master as of old.
Ulysses, noting him, wiped off a tear
Unmarked.

. . . Then his destiny released
Old Argus, soon as he had lived to see
Ulysses in the twentieth year restored. (Od. 17, 290 [Cowper's translation]).



At last seeing his master after so many years, the old dog dies.