Stater (Coin) Depicting a Horseman (380-345 BCE): Artwork and History

Stater (Coin) Depicting a Horseman (380-345 BCE) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Greek; minted in Taras (now Taranto), Italy.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The front (obverse) of this coin depicts a nude horseman galloping to the left, holding a shield. The back (reverse) depicts Taras, nude, riding on a dolphin to the left. The boy riding the dolphin on this coin represents Taras, the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. According to the founding myth of the city of Taras (Tarentum), when Taras was lost at sea, a dolphin rescued him and deposited him on the shore of Calabria in Italy, where the city of Taras grew and prospered. When this coin was struck, four hundred years after the city’s founding, the philosopher Archytas ruled Taras. His coinage is known for the beauty of its design.

Object facts

• Title: Stater (Coin) Depicting a Horseman
• Date: 380-345 BCE
• Artist attribution: Greek; minted in Taras (now Taranto), Italy
• Place of origin: Taranto
• Medium: Silver
• Dimensions: Diam.: 2 cm (13/16 in.)
• Type: Coin
• Department: Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
• Reference number: 1922.4915

Collection credit

Gift of Martin A. Ryerson

View the original

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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.