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MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 450-330 BC. EL Hekte – Sixth Stater (10mm, 2.64 g). Orestes kneeling left on tunny left, holding sword in his lowered right hand, left hand resting on omphalos to right / Quadripartite incuse square. Von Fritze I 165; Boston MFA 1533 = Warren 1489; SNG BN –. Faintly toned, slight die shift on obverse, scratches on reverse. VF.
Ex Nomos Obolos 15 (24 May 2020), lot 297.
Orestes is one of the most complex and conflicted characters in Greek mythology and a prototype for Hamlet. The son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, king and queen of Mycenae, Orestes was too young to take part in the Trojan War and was absent in Athens when his father returned to Mycenae with Cassandra as his concubine. Clytemnestra, enraged by her husband’s betrayal and his earlier sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, conspired with her lover to murder both Agamemnon and Cassandra and rule the kingdom themselves. Orestes, upon his return from Athens, killed his mother and her lover to avenge his father, but his act of matricide both appalled the gods and filled him with guilt, and he was tormented by the furies until driven insane. In a version of the tale related by the playwright Aeschylus, Orestes is tried before a court of immortals and subject to a hung jury, which Athena breaks by voting for his acquittal. In Greek philosophy he is held up as a paradigm for those whose crimes are mitigated by extenuating circumstances.
The final winners of all CNG Feature Auction 129 lots will be determined during the live online sale that will be held on 13-14 May 2025. This lot is in Session One, which will begin 13 May at 9 AM ET.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
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