Drachm: Forepart of Lion (obverse); Head of Aphrodite (reverse) (465–449 BCE): Art, History and Details

Drachm: Forepart of Lion (obverse); Head of Aphrodite (reverse) (465–449 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

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.

Object facts

• Title: Drachm: Forepart of Lion (obverse); Head of Aphrodite (reverse)
• Date: 465–449 BCE
• Culture: Greek, minted at Knidos (Karia)
• Type: Coins
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Diameter: 1.7 cm (11/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1929.914

A detail from the museum

Although produced in the Classical period, this profile head of Aphrodite retains an Archaic look.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cahn, Herbert A. Knidos: die Münzen des sechsten und des fünften Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1970.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.