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Athena and Pegasos on AR Stater of Leukas
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Circa 320-280 B.C. AR Stater (22mm. 8.58g. 6h). BCD Akarnania 269 var. (no monogram). SNG Copenhagen 357 var. (same). Pegasi 134. Obverse Pegasus left, lambda below. Reverse helmeted head of Athena left, monogram below, lambda before stylis. EF, toned.
Ex Sukenik Collection (acquired from Brian Kritt). Ex CNG.
Leukas is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea; and according to ancient sources, a former Corinthian colony. Their coinage reflect their ties with the mother city and almost identical with the coinage of Corinth which could only be distinguished by a small Greek letter to signify where the coins were made, in case of our coin, the letter lambda for Leukas. The coin we have is a beautiful specimen with exquisite details. We could strongly confirm from this coin that the winged Pegasus is a male mythical beast. The reverse is also quite interesting since Athena’s helmet is realistically well proportioned in relation to her head. Other coins of the same type show a smaller helmet which she could impossibly use! The engraver of this coin followed the rules of proportion. Of particular importance is that Leukas is associated with Sappho and the myth of her suicide at Cape Lefkada (Lefkada being the modern name of Leukas). Recently, some scholars suggested that Leukas is the actual place of Homer’s Ithaca. Passages from the Odyssey described Ithaca as an island reachable on foot, which is the case for Leukas since it is not really an island, that it was connected to the mainland by a narrow causeway.
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