Art Institute of Chicago

Tetradrachm (Coin) Depicting a Cista with Snake

Greek; minted in Pergamon, Asia Minor (now Turkey)

Date

133-67 BCE

Medium

Silver

Culture

Ancient Greece

Department

Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

The snakes used in the initiation ceremony of the cult of Dionysos were kept in a cista mystica, or sacred container. The snake represented the god himself in his role as a fertility deity and symbol of reincarnation. This very popular coin type shows the sacred snake wriggling out of a basket encircled by a wreath made of ivy leaves. As part of the rites of Dionysos, the ancient Greeks and Romans chewed ivy leaves, a mild hallucinogen.

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