Herakles or Jason?

CNG 105, Lot: 202. Estimate $5000. Sold for $9500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 450-330 BC. EL Stater (15.5mm, 15.97 g). Nude hero (Herakles or Jason?), wearing conical hat, holding club in right hand, animal skin draped over left arm, kneeling right on tunny right / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 167; Greenwell 68; Boston MFA –; SNG BN –; BMC 71; Gillet –; Gulbenkian 637; Jameson 2200 = Pozzi 2185; Myrmekion 45–51; Rosen –; Weber –. VF.

The identification of the hero on the obverse of this issue is uncertain. In older references he was identified as Herakles, but this was based on examples on which the conical hat was not visible. The use of this headgear makes it unlikely that it is Herakles that is depicted here. As an alternative, Jameson suggested the hero Jason, in which case the animal skin would be the Golden Fleece. That hero’s hat, though, is traditionally depicted as a much more broad-rimmed device (see, e.g., AGCG 374), unlike the narrow hat on this issue. Most modern references simply refer to the figure as a hero.