Megaris, Megara
Caracalla 198-217 CE
AE 23.08mm 6.92g
Obverse: Bare-headed and draped bust right
Reverse: Zeus enthroned left, holding Nike and scepter
LHS 96 BCD lot 58.4 (this coin); NCP page 4, 3
Ex Frank Kovacs
Ex BCD collection
Ex LHS Numismatik 96. Coins of Peloponnesos. The BCD Collection (8 May 2006)
Pausanias wrote:
“And next, as you enter the sacred precinct of Zeus, called the Olympeion, there is a temple worth seeing…The head of this statue of Zeus is of ivory and gold, but the other parts are of clay and gypsum; and they say it was made by Theokosmos, a native, with the assistance of Pheidias.”
Theoskosmos was born in Megara and never finished this statue of Zeus due to the Peloponnesian War. Since the raw materials were no longer available, it was eventually completed in clay and gypsum, as Pausanias noted. Theokosmos also worked on some of the Spartan dedications at Delphi.
Pheidias was a major painter, sculptor, and architect in Ancient Greece and is famous to this day for his sculptures of Athena Parthenon and Athena Promachos.