Very Rare Electrum Hekte from Mytilene, Lesbos, C. 521-478 BC
Obverse: Head of a ram facing to right, a rooster walking to left below, pecking at the ground. Reverse: Incuse head of a bull facing to left. Extremely fine, very rare.
The mythology represented on Mytilene’s electrum coins isn’t always clear however, the animals present on this coin can all be associated with the sun god Apollo in one form or another. In fact, Apollo is a favorite subject of Mytilene’s coinage. On later coins from the city, Apollo’s lyre is present and on others the image of Apollo Karneios wearing ram’s horns is shown. Apollo Karneios is said to be a patron god of cattle and herders so the bull could be a reference to him, as well as the ram.
The rooster, which heralded the coming of dawn with its cry, was sacred to the sun god Helios who, by the time of Euripides (c. 480 – c. 406 BC), had become syncretized with Apollo. Euripides provides the first reference to their syncretization in the surviving fragments his play Phaethon.
Ancient Mytilene, modern Mytilini (map) is on Lesbos, a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. The city was famous for its great output of electrum coins struck from the late 6th through mid 4th centuries BC. According to Homer, Mytilene had been an organized city since 1054 BC.
More about the Coinage of Mytilene…