LESBOS. Mytilene. Circa 412-378 BC. Hekte (Electrum, 10 mm, 2.57 g, 12 h). Head of Artemis-Kybele to right, her hair bound in a sakkos. Rev. Head of a Telchine to left, her hair bound in a sakkos and with a lamp at her forehead; all within linear square within shallow incuse square. Bodenstedt 68. SNG Copenhagen -. SNG von Aulock -. Very rare and with a particularly interesting reverse. Light scratches and minor weakness on the reverse, otherwise, extremely fine.


The Telchines were a mythological original people of Keos, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus and, depending on the story, descendants of either Pontos and Gaia, Tartaros and Nemesis, or Uranos. As such, they already existed before the coming of Zeus and were regarded as malign wizards and daemons, but they were also worshipped as inventive artists and skilled metallurgists, having forged not only a sickle for Kronos but also Poseidon's trident.