Extremely Rare Type

342, Lot: 187. Estimate $100. Sold for $360. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Trikka. Circa 440-400 BC. AR Obol (11mm, 0.77 g, 7h). Horse running right / Female figure (Herkyna) in long chiton, advancing right, head turned to look behind her, she lifts the folds of her drapery with her right hand and with her left hand holds a goose close to her body, the head of the bird looking right; all in shallow incuse square. BCD Thessaly II 773 var. (obv. left); Triton VII, lot 190. VF, toned, some porosity, banker’s mark on obverse. Extremely rare.

Herkyna was a daughter of Trophonios and once, while she was playing with Core, the daughter of Demeter, in the grove of Trophonios near Lebadeia in Boiotia, she let a goose fly away, which she carried in her hand. The bird flew into a cave and concealed itself under a block of stone. When Core pulled the bird from its hiding place, a stream, later named Herkyna, gushed forth from under the stone. On the bank of this rivulet a temple was afterwards erected, with the statue of a maiden carrying a goose in her hand. (Pausanias ix. 39. § 2.).