Getty Museum

Tetradrachm

Date

about 340–325 B.C.

Medium

Silver

Culture

East Greek (Ephesian)

Department

Coins

Institution

Getty Museum

The bee on the front and the palm tree and stag on the back of this four-drachma coin, a tetradrachm, are emblems of Ephesus, a Greek city on the west coast of Turkey. This city was an important center of worship of the Greek goddess Artemis, and the images on Ephesian coinage represent her. Originally the bee was the symbol of an early Anatolian goddess who the Greeks later identified with Artemis. So close was the connection between Artemis and bees that the priestesses of the goddess were called "honey bees." The two Greek letters, epsilon and phi, on either side of the bee are an abbreviation for Ephesus. On the back, the palm tree alludes to Artemis' birthplace, the island of Delos, where, under a palm tree, the goddess Leto gave birth to Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. The forepart of a stag symbolizes Artemis' affinity with animals, and may also refer to the stags figures that flanked her cult statue in the temple at Ephesus. The inscription names a man, Gerenios, who was probably one of the magistrates supervising the mint.

The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.