CYPRUS. Uncertain mints. Early 5th century BC. Stater (Silver, 20 mm, 9.73 g, 12 h). Bull kneeling right, attacked on back by a lion, of which only head and forepaws are visible. Rev. Narrow rectangular incuse with volutes projecting from the corners on one side, and two central lines on the other. Nomos 33 (2024), 1448 var. (differing style and reverse incuse). Traité II, pl. CV, 19 (same dies). Of the highest rarity, apparently the third known example, and only the second of this variety. A important and fascinating issue, with a powerful and highly unusual rendering of the familiar lion-attacking-bull scene. Some original deposits and roughness, otherwise, good very fine.



This extraordinary issue was described by Babelon in his Traité as an 'imitation barbare' of the well-known Tarsian staters depicting a lion on the back of a bull (Traité II, p. 358, 520). That view is clearly untenable: the pieces are not barbarized, and in any case the Tarsian issues do not appear until the second half of the 5th century, long after our coin was struck. It is far more likely that this is a Cypriot issue, adapting and reinterpreting the motif - originally from Akanthos but with a very long history in art - of the lion springing upon the back of a bull.

On the Cypriote issue, however, the lion is not shown in full, but only by his frontally rendered head and forepaws, already sunk into the victim with teeth and claws. The rigid stare of the king of beasts, meeting the viewer’s gaze directly, lends the image an extraordinary intensity. The type recalls an archaic issue of Phaselis showing Herakles kneeling behind a man-faced bull standing right (Traité I, pl. XXIII, 6). Although hero and river-god replace lion and bull, the similarity is striking: from Herakles too we see almost nothing but the frontal head above the bull’s back. Perhaps the Cypriot die-cutter found inspiration in such coinage when he reimagined this ancient motif, so deeply rooted across cultures.