Hemidrachm: Gorgoneion (obverse); Bull (reverse) (c. 400 BCE): Art, History and Details

Hemidrachm: Gorgoneion (obverse); Bull (reverse) (c. 400 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Like the coins of several other ancient cities, those of Parion feature the gorgoneion, or frontal face of Medusa, surrounded by serpents. On the reverse, a bull looks back across its body, with the letters Ρ Ι between its legs. More centrally struck examples preserve two more letters above—Π Α, to give ΠΑΡΙ (PARI), identifying the mint of Parion. The name recalls that of the Cycladic island Paros, one of Parion’s colonizers (with Miletos and Erythrae).

Object facts

• Title: Hemidrachm: Gorgoneion (obverse); Bull (reverse)
• Date: c. 400 BCE
• Culture: Greek, minted at Parion (Mysia)
• Type: Coins
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Diameter: 1.3 cm (1/2 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1917.991

A detail from the museum

Ancient Parion (Latin Parium) lay in the region of Mysia, now northwest Turkey, on the Hellespont.

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.