Bruttium, Rhegium, Tetradrachm with a facing lion's head, signed by Kratesippos, XF

Facing head of lion / Laureate head of Apollo right; olive sprig to left, PHΓINOΣ to right, KPATE/(retrogade OΠΠIΣ) in two lines below chin.

Herzfelder 64 (D36b/R53); HN Italy 2494

17.25 g

Old collection tone, some granularity and roughness

Struck from fresh and artistic dies with a complete artist's signature

One of the best specimens of this scarce type

Provenience:

From a private German collection. Comes with a Spink tag, datable to 1975. Consulting the Spink Numismatic Circular and Spink auction turned no results.

Comes in an NGC slab (no. 6637419-001), Ch XF Strike: 4/5 Surface: 4/5

Contrary to what is generally claimed in the literature, the obverse design is by no means a ‘mask’ of a (dead) lion. The coin design featuring a lion’s head viewed from the front found its way from the coins struck by the Samians in exile in Messana to Southern Italy. Whilst it may initially have been an inanimate lion’s mask, the design evolved into that of a living animal following its adoption by Rhegion. The reason for this is likely to be found in the cult of Apollo, which was of great significance to Rhegion: as a solar animal, the lion was a companion to this deity and could only fulfil this role in living form.

Note the lion’s sideways-facing pupils. What might at first appear to be a whimsical touch by the die-cutter is likely to have had a deeper meaning. In antiquity, the lion was regarded as the ‘animal of the eye’ par excellence. For Pliny, for example, all its power lay in its eyes (omnis vis constat in oculis). The ‘oblique gaze’ (Greek: lóxon ómma, Latin: obliquus oculus) was also regarded as particularly dangerous; certain creatures possessed this trait, which is presumably depicted here. The oblique gaze is also occasionally found in Gorgoneia, which share connections with this lion’s head not only in their frontal reduction to the facial features.

This demonstrates that the obverse and reverse designs are closely interlinked and pay homage to the cult of the sun god Apollo, which was so significant for Rhegion. The connection becomes even clearer when one realises that one (rarer) cult name for Apollo was Loxías (‘the Crooked One’). This is likely the reason why the lion is so frequently depicted in Rhegion with a ‘sideways glance’.