Silver Drachm of Naxos , 8.3 g.
Title
Silver Drachm of Naxos , 8.3 g.
Creator
Naxos (Naxus), Sicily, Italy
Date
c. 420-403 BCE
Description
Obverse: Laureate head of Apollo to right; to left, laurel leaf with berry. ΝΑΞΙΩΝ: of the Naxians.
Reverse: Nude Silenos seated, holding kantharos in right hand and thyrsos in left; to left, sprig of ivy with berries; to right, herm.
Style/Period: Greek (Classical)
Naxos, the oldest of the Greek colonies in Sicily (Thucydides, History, 6.3.1), was founded by Chalkidians from Euboea in 734 BCE. The Sicilian colony took its name from the Cycladic island of Naxos, whose inhabitants had helped in colonizing the city. In 476 BCE, the tyrant Hieron of Syracuse removed the inhabitants of Naxos to Leontinoi. The Naxians returned home in 461, after the tyrant’s death, and in the second half of the century produced a series of beautiful coins.
A head of Apollo, the chief god of the Chalkidians, is depicted in profile on the obverse of the coin. He wears a wreath of laurel, his attribute, and a laurel leaf with a berry is shown to the left of the head. Apollo is not commonly shown on the coins of Naxos, although he is frequently depicted on the coins of Leontinoi (see coins 91.025, 91.026), which was colonized by Naxos in 729 BCE and for whom Apollo became the patron deity.
Coins from Naxos instead often have its patron deity Dionysos on the obverse (see coin 93.004) and, as here, one of his wine-drinking companions, Silenos, on the reverse. Silenos squats and drinks from a kantharos in his right hand and holds a thyrsos – symbol of Dionysos – in his left hand. To the left is a sprig of ivy, another attribute of Dionysos, and on the right a herm (an apotropaic statue of a head on top of a square pillar with male genitals), possibly representing Dionysos himself, who was often represented as a herm.
Max Lavery, LU '17
Bibliography: A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum II: Sicily (Bologna 1963) 120, no. 22; C. M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976) 217-218, 225.
A head of Apollo, the chief god of the Chalkidians, is depicted in profile on the obverse of the coin. He wears a wreath of laurel, his attribute, and a laurel leaf with a berry is shown to the left of the head. Apollo is not commonly shown on the coins of Naxos, although he is frequently depicted on the coins of Leontinoi (see coins 91.025, 91.026), which was colonized by Naxos in 729 BCE and for whom Apollo became the patron deity.
Coins from Naxos instead often have its patron deity Dionysos on the obverse (see coin 93.004) and, as here, one of his wine-drinking companions, Silenos, on the reverse. Silenos squats and drinks from a kantharos in his right hand and holds a thyrsos – symbol of Dionysos – in his left hand. To the left is a sprig of ivy, another attribute of Dionysos, and on the right a herm (an apotropaic statue of a head on top of a square pillar with male genitals), possibly representing Dionysos himself, who was often represented as a herm.
Max Lavery, LU '17
Bibliography: A Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum II: Sicily (Bologna 1963) 120, no. 22; C. M. Kraay, Archaic and Classical Greek Coins (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1976) 217-218, 225.
Source
Former collection of Ottilia Buerger. Purchased from Harlan J. Berk, Chicago, IL
Identifier
2001.076
Rights
Wriston Art Center Galleries, Lawrence University, Appleton, WI,wriston-gallery@lawrence.edu,920-832-6890
Subject
Greek, Apollo, laurel leag, berry, Silenos, kantharos, vine, fruit, thyrsos, herm, Naxos, Naxus, Sicily, Italy
Files
Citation
Naxos (Naxus), Sicily, Italy, “Silver Drachm of Naxos , 8.3 g.,” Lawrence University Classics Department & Ottilia Buerger Coin Collections, accessed November 5, 2026, https://thor.lawrence.edu/omeka/buerger/items/show/340.