Silver Tetradrachm of Naxus (Naxos), Sicily, Italy, 17.49 g.
Title
Silver Tetradrachm of Naxus (Naxos), Sicily, Italy, 17.49 g.
Creator
Naxus (Naxos), Sicily, Italy
Date
c. 460 BCE
Description
Obverse: Bearded head of Dionysos facing right, wearing ivy wreath.
Reverse: Seated Silenos holding kantharos in right hand; ΝΑΧΙΟΝ: of the Naxians.
Style/Period: Greek (ancient)
Naxos was the earliest Greek colony in Sicily, founded by Chalkis in 735 BCE (Thucydides, History 6.3). Its mint also produced some of the earliest coins in Sicily. The Dionysiac types on its coins reflect the mainstay of its economy, the production of wine.
In 476 BCE the Naxians had been forced to move to Leontinoi by the tyrant Hieron of Syracuse, but after the fall of the tyranny they returned home c. 461 BCE The coins that they issued upon their return are considered among the masterpieces of Greek coinage. Only a single pair of dies was made for these coins, of which some 50 examples survive. The obverse depicts a finely detailed head of the wine god Dionysos, and the reverse Silenos, one of the imbibing part-man, part-animal followers of Dionysos. Silenos here has shaggy hair, horse's ears, and a tail. He sits in an undignified squat as he prepares to drink from the kantharos or wine-cup in his right hand. The radical foreshortening of his right leg and foot and the detailed musculature of his torso are comparable to the treatment of the best large-scale sculpture of the period.
-- Carol L. Lawton
Bibliography: C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976) 217-218.
In 476 BCE the Naxians had been forced to move to Leontinoi by the tyrant Hieron of Syracuse, but after the fall of the tyranny they returned home c. 461 BCE The coins that they issued upon their return are considered among the masterpieces of Greek coinage. Only a single pair of dies was made for these coins, of which some 50 examples survive. The obverse depicts a finely detailed head of the wine god Dionysos, and the reverse Silenos, one of the imbibing part-man, part-animal followers of Dionysos. Silenos here has shaggy hair, horse's ears, and a tail. He sits in an undignified squat as he prepares to drink from the kantharos or wine-cup in his right hand. The radical foreshortening of his right leg and foot and the detailed musculature of his torso are comparable to the treatment of the best large-scale sculpture of the period.
-- Carol L. Lawton
Bibliography: C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976) 217-218.
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Purchased from Harlan Berk, 20-Sep-1991. Ex Rosen collection.
Identifier
93.004
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Greek, Dionysus, ivy wreath, Silenos, kantharos, Naxus, Naxos, Sicily, Italy
Files
Citation
Naxus (Naxos), Sicily, Italy, “Silver Tetradrachm of Naxus (Naxos), Sicily, Italy, 17.49 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/163.