Rare Orpheus Type

308, Lot: 223. Estimate $150. Sold for $1500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

THRACE, Philippopolis. Geta. AD 209-211. Æ (30mm, 15.52 g, 6h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Orpheus seated right on rocks, playing lyre; animals around. SNG Copenhnagen –; BMC –; Varbanov 1642 (R7). Good Fine, brown patina, roughness and deposits. Rare.

A native of Thrace, Orpheus was renowned for his music and augural abilities. When his wife, Eurydice, was struck down by a serpent, Orpheus travelled to Hades to win her release. When his attempt ultimately proved unsuccessful, since he forget the gods’ command not to look on his wife’s shade until they had reached the upper world, Orpheus returned to Thrace. According to Ovid (Metamorphoses XI), it was there that he was attacked by a band of Maenads and torn to pieces. The burial places of these pieces soon became shrines and a cult with mysteries developed. Practitioners followed the Orphikos bios, or way of life, which included celibacy and vegentarianism.