Octodrachm: Head of Arsinoe II (obverse); Double Cornucopia (reverse) (205–145 BCE): Art, History and Details

Octodrachm: Head of Arsinoe II (obverse); Double Cornucopia (reverse) (205–145 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

On this long-lived series of coinage, Arsinoe II, a divinized Hellenistic queen, wears the crown and veil associated with Hera; a scepter may be just visible beside her neck. The daughter of Ptolemy I, founder of the Hellenistic Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt for nearly three centuries, Arsinoe married Lysimachos, king of Thrace, at the age of fifteen. After his death, she married first her half-brother and then her full brother, Ptolemy II, beginning a long-lasting Ptolemaic dynastic tradition of sibling marriage. Twin cornucopias on the reverse of this coin likely refer to the divine ruling couple, presaged in Egypt by Isis and Osiris, and in Greece by Zeus and Hera.

Object facts

• Title: Octodrachm: Head of Arsinoe II (obverse); Double Cornucopia (reverse)
• Date: 205–145 BCE
• Culture: Greek, Ptolemaic, minted at Alexandreia (Egypt), reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes or Ptolemy VI Philometor
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2.9 cm (1 1/8 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1965.552

A detail from the museum

The small horn around Arsinoe’s ear, referencing the Egyptian god Amon-Re, marks her divine status.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.

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.