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Aptera, situated on a limestone plateau above Souda Bay in northwestern Crete, maintained its mint intermittently across a long stretch of Hellenistic political turbulence. The city's name — meaning "wingless" — derives from a mythological contest between the Sirens and the Muses, the losers of which allegedly fell into the bay below and transformed into white islands. Whether that story circulated among the city's population or not, Aptera's coinage did, serving local exchange across a period that saw Crete repeatedly drawn into the conflicts of Hellenistic dynasts before Rome finally absorbed the island in 67 BC.