Browse Items (6 total)

  • Collection: Hellenistic Greek coins

DSC_0046_190A2.tif
Alexander the Great Didrachms became a staple coin of Greece, because it was commonly used for international trade. Pictured on the front is the head of Herakles, the greatest hero of the Greeks. Herakles' lion skin headpiece is symbolic of his…

SicilySyracuse_4166210-005_front_DSC_0101a_2019.04.007A.tif
The front side shows the head of Arethusa, a nymph praised for her beauty. She is wearing pearls and a necklace which often showed high status. The four dolphins surrounding Arethusa connects her to Syracuse, Sicily because the sea is important to…

Obverse
The obverse side has the head of Arethusa, who was a nymph and daughter of Nereus. She fled her home, Arcadia, beneath the sea and came up as a fresh spring in Syracuse. Her figure is surrounded by four dolphins, who helped in her escape. The reverse…

CiliciaIssus_2400977-009_back_DSC_0121a_2019.04.006B.tif
On the obverse of the coin, the god Apollo stands facing to the left, leaning against a laurel tree with a libation bowl held in his hand. On the coin’s reverse side, the demigod Herakles stands facing the right while holding a lion skin, a club, and…

Pontic Kingdom_Mithradates VI-2400906-002_front_DSC_0011a2019.04.010A.tif
Mithridates' royal propaganda expresses both his eastern and western ancestry and military victory. The obverse of this coin depicts Alexander the Great wearing the horn of Zeus Ammon. The reverse shows Athena seated with her elbow resting on a…

PtolemaicKingdom_2400929-006_back_DSC_0145a_2019.04.009B.tif
The face of Zeus-Ammon adorns the front of this coin and the eagle that is the symbol of Zeus is on the back. Zeus-Ammon is the pairing of the two godkings of the Greek and Egyptian pantheons. The joining of these cultures is an attempt to…
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