Ancients: MYSIA. Cyzicus. Ca. 550-450 BC. EL stater (20mm, 16.08 gm). NGC Choice VF 4/5 - 5/5....

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The Sphinx of Thebes

MYSIA. Cyzicus. Ca. 550-450 BC. EL stater (20mm, 16.08 gm). NGC Choice VF 4/5 - 5/5. Sphinx crouching left, right forepaw raised; tunny fish left below / Quadripartite incuse square punch. Greenwell 100. Von Fritze I 72. Struck on a lustrous wheat flan with lovely toning around the devices.

From the Wetmore Collection of Gold and Electrum. Ex Roma Numismatics, Auction XIII (23 March 2017), lot 262.

The sphinx, which appears frequently on the early electrum coinage of Cyzicus, had its origins in ancient Egypt (and is here perhaps symbolic of the lucrative trade between Egypt and mainland Greece), but the Greeks quickly developed their own version of the creature, which in their variant had the body of a lion, the wings of a bird and forepart of a woman. The most famous of these was Sphinx of Thebes (the Greek city, though interestingly there is also an Egyptian Thebes), who queried travelers with a riddle, then devoured them, when they could not answer. This went on until she encountered Oedipus, who successfully answered the riddle, whereupon the Sphinx flung herself from a cliff.

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