Search


CNG Bidding Platform

Information

Products and Services



Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

Telephos, Son of Herakles

237, Lot: 152. Estimate $150.
Sold for $800. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CILICIA, Tarsus. Trajan Decius. AD 249-251. Æ (34mm, 17.79 g, 6h). Radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind; П П across field / Herakles standing right, leaning on grounded club, holding lion’s skin and the infant Telephos who reaches for a doe standing right, head turned back to look at him. SNG France -; SNG Levante -; SNG Levante Suppl. -; SNG von Aulock -; SNG Copenhagen -; BMC -. Fine, green-brown patina, a little rough. Possibly unpublished.


From Collection CR.

When Herakles came to Tegea in Arcadia he seduced Auge, not knowing that she was King Aleus' daughter. From this union a boy was born who was secretly hidden by Auge in the precinct of Athena. But Aleus, some say, discovered his daughter's motherhood when he, on account of a pestilence that was ravaging the country, visited the temple of Athena. He then took the infant and exposed it on Mount Parthenius, but it survived, being nourished by a doe that had just cast her fawn. Soon shepherds appeared who took up the infant and named him Telephos. His myth and the stories of his adventures in the Trojan War were fostered by the Attalid rulers of Pergamon in Mysia.