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Lot Essay
Engraved on the underside of this scaraboid is the god Poseidon, depicted nude but for a chlamys draped across his back and hanging down from both arms in long vertical folds. In his lowered hand he holds his trident, its shaft extending incorrectly horizontally behind his back in the Archaic manner. In his other hand, held out before him, is a ketos. The god has long straight hair and a beard. Below to the right swims a baby dolphin. The scene is enclosed by a hatched border.
A striding Poseidon holding a similar trident, sometimes with the addition of a small dolphin in the field, was the principle coin type for Poseidonia in Magna Graecia (see nos. 639-661 in C. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins). A dolphin rider, always beardless, was used for the coinage of Taras. The rider is thought to be either Taras, the son of Poseidon, who was rescued by a dolphin following a shipwreck, or Phalanthus, the mythological founder of the city (see nos. 664-684 in Kraay, op. cit.). The subject is not common on Greek gems; for a later example from the Classical Period, see no. Cbb20 in H.C.L. Wiegandt, op. cit.
A striding Poseidon holding a similar trident, sometimes with the addition of a small dolphin in the field, was the principle coin type for Poseidonia in Magna Graecia (see nos. 639-661 in C. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins). A dolphin rider, always beardless, was used for the coinage of Taras. The rider is thought to be either Taras, the son of Poseidon, who was rescued by a dolphin following a shipwreck, or Phalanthus, the mythological founder of the city (see nos. 664-684 in Kraay, op. cit.). The subject is not common on Greek gems; for a later example from the Classical Period, see no. Cbb20 in H.C.L. Wiegandt, op. cit.