CARIA. Knidos. Circa 395-380 BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 23 mm, 14.75 g, 11 h), Timoteles, magistrate. [K-N] Head of Aphrodite Euploia to left, her hair in ampyx, wearing pendant earring and pearl necklace; behind neck, prow.
Rev. TIMOTEΛH[Σ] Forepart of a lion to left; all within incuse square. Hecatomnus 23a (
this coin). A beautiful piece, boldly struck and magnificently toned. Extremely fine.
Ex Hess-Divo 339, 22 October 2020, 42 and Sternberg XII, 18-19 November 1982, 259, and from the Hecatomnus Hoard (CH V, 17, CH VIII, 96 and CH IX, 387).
Aphrodite Euploia was Knidos' chief deity. Her epithet translates as 'good (or safe) voyage', an appropriate byname for a trade city such as Knidos. In 365 BC, just a few years after our coin was issued, Praxiteles finished his famous Knidian Aphrodite, the first cult statue depicting a goddess nude. The story goes that the artist was commissioned by the Koans to sculpt the statue, but upon seeing that the goddess was nude, the Koans refused to display it, and it was purchased by the Knidians instead, who identified her with Aphrodite Euploia. In New Knidos, founded in circa 330-320 BC, the sculpture was housed in a temple that still stands today, quickly developing into a prime tourist attraction, noted for arousing the passions of its male visitors.
