Syncretism of Herakles and Siva

234, Lot: 147. Estimate $200. Sold for $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

INDO-SKYTHIANS. Maues. Circa 125-85 BC. Æ Unit (28mm, 11.32 g, 12h). Herakles-Siva advancing left, holding club and plow; monogram to lower left / Female deity right, holing fillet; DaMi above. Senior 20.1. Good Fine, brown surfaces, minor roughness. Very rare.

See Rosenfield, Dynastic Arts of the Kushans p. 93, pl. XVI, 7 for a seal identifying the god as Siva. The cloak on the figure on the coin is clearly made of a lion’s skin, and that, along with the club, seems to indicate an assimilation of the Greek and Indian deities.