Artemis the huntress

[Britannicus]

Here's a lovely representation of Artemis the huntress, from Mantineia in Arcadia. It's not just a beautiful coin - it's also very rare.
Obv. [... CE]VHPOC ΠE, Laureate head of Septimius Severus to r.
Rev. [MAN]TINE[Ω]N, Artemis advancing r., a hound at her feet. She holds a bow and is drawing an arrow from her quiver. Her right breast is bared (like an Amazon).
Æ 22 (Assarion), 5 h, 5.49 g.
Cf. Auction LHS Numismatics 96, May 2006 (Coins of Peloponnesos - The BCD Collection) 1509.3 = Auction Schulman, June 1969 (T. O. Mabbott Collection) 982; Numismatic Commentary on Pausanias, p.94

[Pscipio]

It has everything a coin needs - beautiful, congratulations!

Lars

[Jochen]

How realistic! 

[Britannicus]

Although the coin was unidentified, when I saw her, I had to have her! Identifying the coin wasn't so easy, though I guessed that it might be Peloponnesian from the style and size. However, it was the similar coin illustrated in the BCD sale catalogue that clinched it. Auction catalogues can sometimes be very useful.
P.S. (to Jochen) You do remember what happens to naughty fellows (like Actaeon) who spy on Artemis's natural charms? 

[gordian_guy]

Well done Britannicus - a coin to make an Artemis collector quite green!! Thank you for sharing..

c.rhodes

[slokind]

I'm not too surprised.  Last night, as I was about to fall asleep, I remembered reading that Artemis had one shoulder (and, given the nature of the garment, that meant the breast, too) bare. not to be flirtatious but because a bunching of cloth could (and can) spoil a shot.  I modeled it with a virtual bow in my left hand, and so it is.
That is a wonderful coin, all right.  And the LHS BCD catalogue is a treasure.
Thank you!  I'll put a note also in the other thread.  Pat L.

[Rupert]

1. Very beautiful! The lively reverse is almost the same as on my Nerva denarius I posted earlier here (https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=29756.0), just seen from a slightly different angle. Perhaps the coins depict the same statue? But I think that on the denarius, Diana's right shoulder and breast are covered - maybe the had a censored version of the Greek original in Rome??

2. The LHS 96 catalogue, BCD collection, Coins of Peloponnesus, is a truly great catalogue. One annoying thing, however, is the fact that it lacks any table of contents! So I just wrote one for myself last week, a Word document on one page that you can print and put (or glue) inside the book. If anybody of you needs it, PM me and I can mail it to you. On the other hand, I'm looking for the list of prices realized. Does anybody have it?

Rupert

[slokind]

There's Alan Walker's Index, a MSWord document, which I downloaded but cannot post.  I do also have the Prices Realized list.  I'll look to see whether you have a real e-mail address (or can supply one) so that I can send them as Attachments.  Pat L.
P.S. It is true that Rome 'censored' bare breasts and Greece did not.  And I was feeling very silly about doubting that Artemis the Huntress (like an Amazon, an archer) had one breast bare.
Yet when, just now, I prepared to bite the bullet, and I checked the famous Late Classical Huntress type, exemplified by the "Diane de Versailles" in the Louvre (it's her extremities that are restorations) and by the less famous Artemis Rospigliosi (also Louvre), both echoed in coin types (but not at Mantinea!), I found them wearing a thin chiton as an undergarment, just as the Julio-Claudian girl with an Artemis body in the MNR does.  Pat L.

[Britannicus]

Hi Pat, I'd appreciate these two items as well!   
I bid in the auction - unsuccessfully, like a lot of other people, I imagine - but they didn't send me the Prices Realised list. All the coins that really interested me were in lots, and sold for huge prices, but some of them are slipping back onto the market now as the dealers who bought the lots sell off the coins individually.
BCD had no less than ten (!) coins of Antinoüs from Mantineia, and nineteen Severan coins, including this Artemis reverse for Severus, Caracalla, Plautilla, and for Geta Caesar - but mine is the nicest, I think!
- Francis

[moonmoth]

Here's the same reverse as Britannicus', but for Severus Alexander and from Deultum, and nowhere near as elegant. Only the dog looks as lively.  Artemis' pose is the same, but the drapery is slightly different, being brought up to the right armpit.  There's plenty of bare flesh, but it's not quite clear whether the breast is intended to be exposed.