#cyrene

Κυρηνη

Kyrenewas a Thessalian princess, the daughter of King Hypseus of the Lapiths. She was a famed huntress who guarded her father’s herds on Mount Pelion, slaying wild beasts with javelin and sword. One day, when she was wrestling a lion, the god Apollon spied her and was inflamed with love. He carried her off to the Hill of Myrtles in Libya where she bore him a son named Aristaios. The boy was placed in the care of the wise Kentauros Chiron and became a demi-god of beekeeping and other rustic pursuits. After she gave birth to their son, Apollo transformed her into a nymph, so that she could have a long life and keep hunting as much as she desired.

Apollo of Cyrene

• Roman copy of a Hellenistic original of about 200-150BC
• The British Museum

The god Apollo is rendered as a muscular young man. However, the feminine sensuality is displayed here by his over-emphasized hips. He is shown nude with the exception of a cloak wrapped around his hips which falls below the waist. As the god of music, he is shown playing a lyre, with a python nestled below. The fingers (now lost) of the left hand must have touched the strings of the ornamented lyre, the latter having been placed on a pillar.