Drachm: Head of Herakles (obverse); Club, Bow Case (reverse) (387–300 BCE): Art, History and Details

Drachm: Head of Herakles (obverse); Club, Bow Case (reverse) (387–300 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

One of many city-states to include the hero Herakles–here shown beardless and wearing his lion-skin–on its coinage, Erythrae lies on the Ionian coast, near the island of Chios. The reverse features the inscriptions ΕΡΥ (for Erythrae) and ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΟΣ, likely the name of a magistrate. Also present are a small owl and kantharos (wine cup), plus the club and bow case of Herakles.

Object facts

• Title: Drachm: Head of Herakles (obverse); Club, Bow Case (reverse)
• Date: 387–300 BCE
• Culture: Greek, minted at Erythrai (Ionia)
• Type: Coins
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2 cm (13/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1917.993

A detail from the museum

The hero Herakles appears on coinage from city-states across the Greek world.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 4 (1917): 64-67.

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.