430, Lot: 73. Estimate $75. Sold for $45. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THESSALY, Halos. 3rd century BC. Æ Chalkous (17mm, 5.75 g, 12h). Diademed head of Zeus right / ΑΛΕΩN, Phrixos riding ram right; monogram to left. Reinders Series 7; Rogers 242; BCD Thessaly 86.2; HGC 4, 8. VF, green-brown patina.

From the BCD Collection.

Phryxos and his sister Helle, threatened by their resentful stepmother Ino, were rescued by a flying golden ram sent by their natural mother Nephele. Helle fell from the ram into the sea (the Hellespont, so named for her) but Phryxos clung to the ram until he arrived safely at Colchis. There he sacrificed the ram to Zeus, and after being warmly received by Aeëtes, the king of Colchis, presented the ram’s magnificent fleece to his host. It was this golden fleece that the Thessalian hero Jason, along with the other Argonauts, embarked on their epic journey to attain.