Uncertain king. Stater circa 475-455, AR 21 mm, 11.11 g. Aramaic legend Nude, muscular male figure, in kneeling-running stance l.; long straight hair, holding object with both hands. Rev. Archer, wearing long garment over shoulder and helmet (?), in "kneeling-running" stance l., drawing bow; all within dotted square within incuse square. A. Destrooper-Georgiades, Le Trésor de Larnaca (IGCH 1272) Réexaminé, in Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus, 1984, p.144-145 and pl. xxviii, 12-13. P. Dikaios, A hoard of silver Cypriot Staters from Larnaca, NC 1935, 528-529. E.S.G. Robinson, Notes on the Larnaca Hoard, NC 1935, pp. 185-186. E.T. Newell, Miscellanea numismatica: Cyrene to India, ANSNNM 82, 1938, pp. 14-17. Apparently unique and unrecorded. An issue of tremendous fascination with a lovely iridescent tone. Test-cut on obverse, otherwise good very fine Ex CNG sale 115, 2020, 266. Greek tradition held that the city of Lapethus was founded by Lakonians under the leadership of a certain Praxander, but it actually seems to have been a Phoenician settlement since the eleventh century B.C. The history of the city and its kings in the Classical period is poorly known, but local coinage, which begins the name of King Sidqmelek in ca. 450-435 B.C., provides some names. This unique fifth-century BC stater of Lapethus is closely related to a group of extremely rare staters known primarily from the Larnaca Hoard (IGCH 1272), the Persepolis deposit (IGCH 1789), in museum collections. These feature the same running figure holding his hands over his belly, with an archer on the reverse. Taken together, the obverse and reverse types have been interpreted as depicting the Gigantomachy, the great battle between the Giants and the Olympian gods. According to Greek mythology, the Giants were born when the blood of the castrated Uranus fell to earth and climbed Mount Olympus, intent on overthrowing Zeus and the other gods. In the great battle that followed, the Olympian gods were assisted by the mortal hero Hercules in fulfillment of a prophecy and defeated the Giants. In this context, the running figure on the obverse is normally interpreted as a fleeing Giant clutching at a wound while the archer figure is understood as Heracles. This interpretation is undoubtedly correct with respect to the examples from the Larnaca Hoard and the Persepolis deposit, since the archer is also shown holding a club and wearing a lion's skin, both trademark iconographic elements of Heracles. On the present coin, however, the archer cannot be interpreted as Heracles, as there is no lion’s skin and no club present. Instead, the archer here seems to be Apollo, indicated by the omphalos visible between his kneeling legs. Apollo seems to have frequently worked alongside Heracles during the Gigantomachy. Together, they killed the Giant Ephialtes when Apollo shot an arrow into his left eye, and Heracles shot at his right. Since the Giant on the obverse of this coin is holding his gut and not his eyes, it seems unlikely that we are to understand the death of Ephialtes here. Instead, the obverse figure is probably intended to represent Porphyrion, the leader of the Giants, who was slain by Apollo’s golden bow according to the poet Pindar (Pyth.8). This impressive coin shows that Heracles was not the only Olympian participant depicted in the extremely rare Gigantomachy series of Lapethus. If Apollo was also depicted, as on this unique stater, one wonders whether other Olympians might also appear on other staters not yet discovered. It is a truly important coin that expands our knowledge of an extremely rare and fascinating issue. Please find here the video of the coin