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Aphrodite Aeneias
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Akarnania, Leukas, 167-100 BC, AR Didrachm
Cult statue of the goddess Aphrodite Aeneias with stag standing right, holding aplustre, bird on standard behind; all within a laurel wreath. / ΛΕΥΚΑΔΙΩΝ ΦΙΛΑΝΔΡΟΣ (Leukadion Philandros) above prow of galley right.
BCD Akarnania 313-314; BMC 180, 101-103; Postolokas, Lambros 67, 688 var.
(23 mm, 7.90 g, 11h)
This coin was issued as the Hellenistic age was in decline, succumbing to the expansionary drive of Rome. The coins of this issue were often struck from relatively crude dies in an advanced state of wear. Yet they retain a charm and aesthetic that in some sense seems to speak of the last gasps of a dying Hellenistic age. The obverse image is thought to depict the cult statue of Aphrodite Aeneias, whose sanctuary was situated near the town of Leukas, overlooking the shipping canal that separated the island from the mainland.
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