Ancient Greece - AR Stater - Poseidon - Circa 470-420 BC
$2,175
Denomination: AR Stater (19mm,12h)
Date: Circa 470-420 BC
Mount: Sterling Silver with 14K gold prongs and bale
Mint: Luciania, Italy
Grade: NGC 632761-009 VF
Description: LUCANIA. Poseidonia. Obverse: Poseidon striding right, nude but for chlamys spread across shoulders, brandishing trident in right hand / ΠΟΣEI (retrograde). Reverse: Bull standing left on ground line.
History: Poseidon (Greek: Ποσειδῶν) was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes in Greek mythology. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. he was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, but he was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades. Poseidon has many children. Lucania was a historical region of Southern Italy. It was the land of the Lucani, an Oscan people. It extended from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Gulf of Taranto.
There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena. According to the references from Plato in his dialogue Timaeus and Critias, the island of Atlantis was the chosen domain of Poseidon.
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