Very Rare Zeus Osogoa – First Issue

CNG 97, Lot: 244. Estimate $5000. Sold for $15000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CARIA, Mylasa. Circa 250-200 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25mm, 13.30 g, 12h). Zeus Osogoa standing right, holding eagle in right hand, left hand holding trident set on crab / Zeus Labraundos standing right, holding labrys in right hand, left hand holding scepter set on ground; MYΛA-ΣEΩN at sides. Delrieux 1 (D1/R1); Akarca 9 (same dies as illustration); SNG Keckman –; SNG von Aulock –. Good VF, toned, light porosity. Extremely rare, one of four known (with two in public collections: BN and Istanbul; the third appeared in Gorny & Mosch 164, lot 220).

According to the first century BC Greek geographer Strabo (Geography 14. 2. 23), the Mylasians had three temples of Zeus in their city. In addition to the temples of Zeus Labraundos and Zeus Karios, a third was dedicated to Zeus Osogoa, an indigenous Carian god. The temple complex dedicated to him in Mylasa was of such a size and style that Pausanias (8.10.3) equated it with the Athenian Acropolis. The cult statue depicted here first appeared on very rare tetradrachms of Maussolos struck at Mylasa, circa 377 BC. It also appears later on cistophori of Hadrian, as well as Roman provincial bronze issues of Mylasa. For a further discussion of this god, see A. Laumonier, Les cultes indigènes en Carie (Paris, 1958), pp. 45-126. The present coin is from the first issue of this type: Delrieux 1 (D1/R1).