Macedon, Mende, Tetradrachm ca. 460-423 BC, extremely rare variety

This Tetradrachm, struck with a single pair of dies, features the extremely rare type showing Dionysos looking to the right, and not to the left as on the more common type. Only a very few examples of this type have been found to date, most of which are from the 1913 Mende Hoard (now Kalandra).

For this extremely rare variety of Mende Tetradrachms, some of them are held in private collections following the auction of the hoard, and a larger number are now in various public collections. We note that an example in the Jameson collection (no. 1964) has identical dies. Our Tetradrachm should have a tiny swastika on the drapery of the god, but it has almost disappeared due to circulation wear, and remains visible but extremely faint, almost merged with the drapery. This attractive example was issued in the city of Mende, which was located on one of the peninsulas of Chalkidiki, the Cassandra peninsula. On this peninsula, there was also a temple dedicated to Dionysus, the Temple of Aphytis, which was presumably the site of a Dionysian cult and therefore linked to the city of Mende.

The Tetradrachm shows a detail of a ‘Dionysian procession’ in which Dionysus is accompanied by a group of satyrs, maenads, panthers, goats, donkeys and the old Silenus. The only representation we have here is of Dionysus moving on the back of a donkey, drunk and raising his kantharos. This vase characterizes him both in his state of drunkenness, as it was a ceramic whose main use was for drinking wine, but also as its main attribute, of which he would be the inventor himself. The vase is depicted in representations of initiation rites to the cult of Dionysus, a mystery cult where, despite the lack of ancient sources, we know that they were the scene of excess and delirium, especially of drinking. The donkey carrying Dionysus is also significant, as one of the animals symbolizing the divinity. It echoes the satyr Silenus, who was the adopted father and tutor of the god, whose attribute was the donkey, riding on his back because he was constantly drunk.

Mende was a renowned wine-producing and exporting city in ancient times, which explains the Dionysian iconography on the obverse, as well as that on the reverse with the vine and abundant grape bunches. We have here a beautiful object, with a rich and powerful iconography, and above all, an absolute rarity because of the orientation of thee face of Dionysos to the right. A variety seen only in major collections, such as the Jameson Collection, whose specimen came from an ancient coin hoard. HGC 3.1, 545; Jameson 1964 (same dies); Noe, ‘The Mende (Kaliandra) Hoard of 1913’, NNM 27, 1926, 36 (IGCH 358); SNG ANS 345 (same dies) and Pozzi 785-6 (Auction catalogue).