Cleveland Museum of Art

Octodrachm: Head of Arsinoe II (obverse); Double Cornucopia (reverse)

Date

205–145 BCE

Medium

gold

Culture

Greek, Ptolemaic, minted at Alexandreia (Egypt), reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes or Ptolemy VI Philometor

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

On this long-lived series of coinage, Arsinoe II, a divinized Hellenistic queen, wears the crown and veil associated with Hera; a scepter may be just visible beside her neck. The daughter of Ptolemy I, founder of the Hellenistic Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries, Arsinoe married Lysimachos, king of Thrace, at the age of fifteen. After his death, she married first her half-brother and then her full brother, Ptolemy II, beginning a long-lasting Ptolemaic dynastic tradition of sibling marriage. Twin cornucopias on the reverse of this coin likely refer to the divine ruling couple, presaged in Egypt by Isis and Osiris, and in Greece by Zeus and Hera. The small horn around Arsinoe’s ear, referencing the Egyptian god Amon-Re, marks her divine status.

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