336, Lot: 228. Estimate $100. Sold for $220. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Alexandria. Antoninus Pius. AD 138-161. Æ Drachm (34mm, 22.74 g, 1h). Dated RY 12 (AD 148/9). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Isis seated right on throne, holding infant Harpokrates; all within distyle Egyptian-style temple façade, disk in pediment; L ΔωΔЄ KATO[V] (date) around. Köln 1610; Dattari (Savio) 3048; K&G 35.437; Emmett 1587.12. VF, earthen green surfaces, smoothing/cleaning scratches in fields.

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 principal deities. It is generally recognized that the iconography of Isis nursing Harpocrates influenced Christian representations of the Madonna and Child, particularly the Virgo lactans type popular in Medieval Europe.