Sale: Triton VI, Lot: 462. Estimate $1500.  Closing Date: Monday, 13 January 2003.  Sold For $2000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SELEUKID KINGS of SYRIA. Antiochos IX. First Reign, 113-112 BC. AR Tetradrachm (16.43 gm). Tarsos mint. Diademed head right within filleted border / BASILEWS ANTIOCOU FILOPATOROS, altar of Sandan surmounted by an eagle, within which the god stands atop winged mythical lion, baetyls flanking the lion; DI and ME monograms to left. SNG Spaer -; Houghton 496 (this coin); Babelon, Les Rois de Syrie, 1482. Toned near EF. Rare on a large flan, with full details of altar visible. ($1500)

Ex Russell Bement, Jr. Collection (Classical Numismatic Group 51, 15 September 1999), lot 553; Arthur Houghton Collection; Kricheldorf 17 (8 May 1967), lot 146.

The cult of Sandan, or Sandas, is a remnant of the 17th century BC Hittite occupation of Cilicia. In his Luwian form he was Teshub, the god of mountain storms. Within the Hittite sanctuary at Yazilikaya he is depicted as a bearded god with conical headdress, holding a club and a plant, probably related to the Mesopotamian Tree of Life. Like the rest of the Hittite High Gods, Teshub's feet never touch earth; he either rides the back of mythological beasts, is borne on the shoulders of lesser gods, or strides above the mountain tops. The mountain tops recall the lofty Hittite homeland, as does the high-peaked cap, and the pyramidal shape of Sandan's altar. While Sandan's cult in Tarsos became assimilated with that of Herakles, in his origins as a nature god he is more closely attuned to the Greek king of the gods, Zeus.