LOT 0076

Eastern Greek Carnelian Scaraboid Gemstone with Nude Hero Holding Lions

6TH-5TH CENTURY B.C. OR LATER

3/4 in. (4.25 grams, 19 mm).

Scaraboid type with incuse design to the underside of a nude hero facing, holding one lion by the neck and another by the hind leg; supplied with a museum-quality impression. [No Reserve]

From the private collection of a European gentleman (1942-2024), formed since the 1970s.

Cf. a similar (but not identical) gemstone with Herakles fighting a lion and a fox, in Boardman, J., Greeks gems and finger rings, Early Bronze Age to Late Classical, London, 1970, no.343; cf. also Spier, J., Ancient Gems and finger Rings, catalogue of the collections, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1992, no.103.

The gem could be considered a representation of Heracles, even if the iconography is unusual, and is influenced by the Mesopotamian environment, from where it borrows the frontal image of the hero (Gilgamesh or Enkidu) fighting with two beasts. The hero is beardless and holding an inverted lion. He is acting like a master of the animals, showing eastern traits reminiscent of Graeco-Phoenician art. In the Phoenician tradition, a similar image of the god Bes, holding two lions, as posis theron (‘Master of the Animals’), is common. The type is more frequent in the Eastern Mediterranean than in the West and is found on scarabs in carnelian and chalcedony.