Silver Didrachm of Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya, 7.74 g.
Title
Silver Didrachm of Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya, 7.74 g.
Creator
Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya
Date
early 3rd Century BCE
Description
Obverse: Head of horned Apollo Karneios facing left
Reverse: Silphium plant; monogram left, eight-pointed star right; ΚΥ - ΡΑ [ΝΑΙΟΝ ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΩΝ]: of Ptolemaic Kyrene.
Style/Period: Greek (ancient), Hellenistic
Kyrenaica was on a plateau in present-day Libya, settled by Greeks from the island of Thera about 630 BCE Its principal city was Kyrene. Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt acquired the territory in 322 BCE, and it was under Egyptian control for much of its history (see 91.099).
The obverse of this coin depicts Apollo Karneios, whose cult was brought to Kyrene by the Greeks and who was the principal deity of the city after Zeus Ammon. The epithet Karneios is obscure, but probably ultimately derived from the Greek word for horn, and refers to the horns of this particular manifestation of Apollo, a herdman or pastoral deity.
The city's wealth depended upon the now-extinct silphium plant, grown only in Kyrene, which became the regular device for the city's coins. Its stalk was eaten as a vegetable, and the sap from its stem and root was used as a seasoning, a perfume, and a contraceptive drug.
-- Kristin J. Brainard Addington, LU '94
Bibliography: C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los Angeles) 296-299.
The obverse of this coin depicts Apollo Karneios, whose cult was brought to Kyrene by the Greeks and who was the principal deity of the city after Zeus Ammon. The epithet Karneios is obscure, but probably ultimately derived from the Greek word for horn, and refers to the horns of this particular manifestation of Apollo, a herdman or pastoral deity.
The city's wealth depended upon the now-extinct silphium plant, grown only in Kyrene, which became the regular device for the city's coins. Its stalk was eaten as a vegetable, and the sap from its stem and root was used as a seasoning, a perfume, and a contraceptive drug.
-- Kristin J. Brainard Addington, LU '94
Bibliography: C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los Angeles) 296-299.
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Bought at Stack's auction September 13, 1973.
Identifier
91.102
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Greek, Apollo Karneios, Silphium plant, star, Cyrene, Kyrene, Kyrenaica, Libya
Files
Citation
Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya, “Silver Didrachm of Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya, 7.74 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/203.