287, Lot: 347. Estimate $150. Sold for $240. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ Drachm (34mm, 21.86 g, 12h). Dated RY 17 (AD 132/3). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Isis seated right on throne, suckling Harpokrates, holding scepter; L IZ (date) across field. Köln -; Dattari (Savio) 1751; K&G 32.545; Emmett 997 (r4). Good Fine, brown surfaces, minor porosity. Rare.

From the Greenpoint Collection.

Following Alexander’s conquest of Egypt, the cult of Isis spread across the Mediterranean, with its popularity reaching its zenith in the Roman period, when the “goddess of a thousand names” became one of the Mediterranean’s principle deities. It is generally assumed that the iconography of Isis nursing Harpocrates influenced Christian representations of the Madonna and Child, particularly the Virgo lactans type popular in Medieval Europe.