Pre-Long Beach Auction #80

C. Hosidius C.f. Geta. Silver Denarius (3.85 g), 64 BC. Rome. GETA before, III VIR behind, diademed and draped bust of Diana right, bow and quiver at shoulder. Reverse C HOSIDI C F, the wild board of Calydon charging right, side pierced by arrow, harried by hound below. Crawford 407/2; Sydenham 903; Hosidia 1. Boldly struck in high relief with attractive iridescent toning. Superb Extremely Fine.

The classical myth of the Calydonian boar served to illustrate the need for paying proper respect to the gods and the consequences for not doing so. King Oeneus of Aetolia had forgotten to accord proper rites to the goddess Diana (Artemis), and for this sacrilege she sent a chthonic beast, the wild boar of Calydon, to ravage the Aetolian hinterland. The boar was the bane of the people, destroying vineyards and crops and forcing everyone to take shelter behind their city walls. With starvation ensuing, a hunt was organized, and most of the illustrious heroes of Greece's heroic age took part (with the exception of Hercules who fought his own chthonic beast, the Erymanthean boar). Amongst all these male heroes was one female, the heroine Atalanta, and she won the signal honor of being the first to wound the boar, having pierced its side with an arrow. For this she was awarded its hide. Although the precise meaning is lost to us, it can be assumed that Hosidius employed the type of the Caledonian boar to illustrate a claimed descent from one of the heroes involved in the hunt, perhaps from Atalanta herself.
Estimated Value $900 - 1,100.
Ex Meister & Sonntag 6 (1 October 2008), 201.