(7) Terina, Bruttium (Italy) - AR stater, c. 440 B.C., 7.75 g. (inv. 91.021).
Obverse: In olive wreath, head of nymph Terina l. wearing ampyx and double necklace with pendants.
Reverse: Nike seated l. on overturned hydria, holding wreath in r., kerykeion in l.; TERINAION:
of the Terinans.
Provenance: Ex Fred V. Fowler collection; Stack's, 1969.
Bibliography: R.R. Holloway and G.K. Jenkins, Terina (Bellinzona 1983).

Terina was a colony founded by Kroton on the western coast of Italy in the late seventh or sixth century. The site of the ancient city is unknown and little is known of its history, but like other Greek colonies in Italy and Sicily, it had coinage of high quality. Its coinage began c. 460 B.C., but it did not issue large numbers of coins until the second half of the fifth century, when this coin was struck.

The local nymph Terina appears on the obverse of all the city's coins. Her image varies over time, often apparently influenced by the depictions of the nymph Arethusa on the coins of Syracuse, with
emphasis on the elaborate hairstyle, headband, and jewelry. On this coin she has unusual, tightly waved hair rolled around an ampyx or headband, which covers most of her forehead. The winged female on the reverse is Nike, but as depicted here, seated on an overturned water jug, she is perhaps also identified with Terina, the city's eponymous nymph and protectress of its local water source. She wears a chiton and himation and holds two of Nike's typical attributes, a wreath referring to victory and a kerykeion or herald's staff associated with peace and prosperity.

C.L.L.


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