Nomos 32

SICILY. Segesta. Circa 405-400 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 27.5 mm, 16.26 g, 2 h). ΣΕΓΕΣΤΑΙΩΝ The hunter Aigestes, nude but for cloak over his left arm, with his pileos hanging on a cord at the back of his neck and his sword hanging at his waist on a strap going over his right shoulder, standing right, his left foot on a rock, holding two spears over his shoulder with his left hand and resting his right on his waist; he gazes right at a herm (here barely visible at the edge of the flan) and has two hunting dogs prowling right at his feet. Rev. ΣΕΓΕ-ΣΤΑΖΙB Head of the nymph Segesta to left, wearing a triple-pendant earring, a necklace with pendants and with her hair bound in an ampyx and a sakkos; below her neck and behind her head, barley stalk and ear. BMC 32. Buceti 88a. HGC 2, 1108. Hurter T8. Kraay & Hirmer 203. Lederer 6. Mildenberg, Kimon pl. 11, 21 (same dies). Rizzo pl. LXII, 14 (same dies). SNG ANS 646. Of very fine style with a particularly painterly obverse, and a reverse head of the nymph Segesta of a full-blown, almost baroque beauty. Extremely fine.

From an American collection, ex Roma II, 2 October 2011, 52 and Tkalec 17 May 2010, 10.

The head of Segesta on the reverse of this coin is an elaborately coiffed voluptuous one! In fact the nymph Segesta was originally a Trojan woman who had been sent from Troy by her father Hippotes, who wanted to protect her from being eaten by monsters sent by Apollo and Poseidon. When she arrived in Sicily a local river god, Crimisus, promptly seduced her while in the form of a dog (thus the dog appears as Segesta's badge). The fruit of their union was Aigestes, who then founded the city of Segesta, named after his mother.