Cleveland Museum of Art

Hemidrachm: Chimaera (obverse); Dove (reverse)

Date

400–323 BCE

Medium

silver

Culture

Greek, minted at Sikyon (Peloponnesos)

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

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, as seen on this Sikyonian coin). The monstrous chimaera adds a goat head and snake-headed tail to the already fearsome lion.

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