Quadrans (Coin) Depicting the Hero Hercules (225-217 BCE): Artwork and History

Quadrans (Coin) Depicting the Hero Hercules (225-217 BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Roman.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front (obverse) of this coin depicts the hero Hercules, wearing his signature lion skin cloak. On the back (reverse), the prow of a ship is shown, sailing right. Herakles was the consummate hero. Temples across Greece and South Italy were dedicated to him, the son of Zeus, and Romans, who knew him as Hercules, celebrated him as a role model. With brute force, determination, and just enough cleverness, Herakles completed his famous Twelve Labors to become immortal. Herakles is readily identifiable by his knobby club and lion’s skin. The latter refers to his First Labor, in which he killed a magical beast who was ravaging the town of Nemea. The lion’s invincible hide made him immune to weapons, so Herakles strangled him and took his pelt.

Object facts

• Title: Quadrans (Coin) Depicting the Hero Hercules
• Date: 225-217 BCE
• Artist attribution: Roman
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Bronze
• Dimensions: Diam.: 4.5 cm (1 13/16 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1923.1229

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. William Nelson Pelouze

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.