Cleveland Museum of Art

Tetradrachm: Head of Apollo (obverse); Head of Lion (reverse)

Date: 466–422 BCE
Medium: silver
Culture: Greek, minted at Leontinoi (Sicily)
Department: Greek and Roman Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 98332

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

The lion, king of the beasts and an animal associated with regal and heroic power, featured prominently on the coinage of many ancient Greek city-states. Artists placed the lion in a variety of poses, sometimes including the whole body, at other times the foreparts or just the head. Although it may once have roamed nearby, for many Greeks the lion was a monster nearly as exotic as the Chimaera, of which it formed a part, together with a goat head and snake-headed tail. The lion on coins of Leontini marks a pun on the city name.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
Provenance: ?-1917: (Charles T. Seltman, Berkhamsted, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

Part of a LinkedCulture topic

Ancient Greek Silver Tetradrachms
These objects are all tetradrachm coins, a standard ancient Greek silver denomination, depicting various deities and symbols from Greek city-states and territories across the Mediterranean.
333 objects from 3 institutions