As many already said, the animal is indeed a
lion, partially transformed in
scorpion by the
celtic "imitator"... I do not know why (that is, I don't know if there is a specific meaning for the
scorpion or if the
celtic celator simply thought that the strange animal on the orginal coin of the Greek colony was similar to the more familiar
scorpion). But if you want to see the
complete transformation into
scorpio, look at this coin from my
collection (
drachm from the plains of Northern
Italy and another kind of Massalia
imitative)...
Federico
PS
If you know of similar coins at
good prices, please let me know, since I would like to have in my
collection the different variants (from the orignal
drachm, up to the imitatives of Est Europe and Danube region).
