Cyrene (Latin) or Kyrene, pronounced variously as sy-REE-nee or ky-REE-nee, was a figure in Greek mythology considered the etymon of the Greek colony of Cyrene in eastern Libya in North Africa. She was said to have been a Thessalian princess who became the queen of Cyrene, founded and named in her honor by Apollo. The story is entirely apocryphal, the city having been founded by settlers from Thera.

Cyrene, also sometimes anglicized as Kyrene, was an ancient Greek colony and Roman city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in North Africa. It was part of the Pentapolis, an important group of five cities in the region, and gave the area its classical and early modern name Cyrenaica.