Gold 1/10 Stater of Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya, 0.86 g.

Gold 1/10 Stater of Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya, 0.86 g.

Cyrene (Kyrene), Kyrenaica, Libya

c. 331-323 BCE

Obverse: Head of Zeus Ammon facing left

Reverse: Head of Kyrene facing right, wearing single-pendant earring and necklace; monogram in left field.

Style/Period: Greek (ancient), Hellenistic

In the winter of 332/31 BCE, the Kyrenaians entered into an alliance with Alexander the Great, and from that time until it was acquired by Ptolemaic Egypt the city of Kyrene issued a series of gold staters and smaller denominations, including this tenth of a stater with the head of Zeus Ammon on the obverse and a female head, perhaps the nymph Kyrene, on the reverse.

Ammon was the chief imperial god of ancient Egypt, who became known to the Greeks through their colonization of Kyrene and identified with their chief god Zeus. His was the most important cult in Kyrene, where a Hellenized version of him was worshiped as Zeus Ammon. In Greek cities he was usually depicted as a Zeus-like figure but with the ram's horns of the Egyptian Ammon added. Kyrene was a nymph admired by Apollo for wrestling a lion. He carried her off to Libya, where the city of Kyrene was named for her.

-- Kristin J. Brainard Addington, LU '94

Bibliography: C.M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976) 296-297; B.V. Head, Historia Numorum (Oxford 1911) 864-871.

Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Bought from Abner Kreisberg, February 24, 1972.

91.103

Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890

Greek, Zeus Ammon, Kyrene, Cyrene, Kyrenaica, Libya