Stater: Head of Nymph (Obverse); Nike (Reverse) (c. 420–400 BCE): Art, History and Details

Stater: Head of Nymph (Obverse); Nike (Reverse) (c. 420–400 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Coins from the South Italian colony of Terina are notable for their sophisticated reworkings of other cities’ designs. On the obverse of this tetradrachm is a female head with short, wavy hair, possibly modeled on the Syracusan nymph Arethousa. The reverse captures an intimate moment as Nike sits, tenderly holding a bird, much like young women in Athenian funerary sculptures.

Object facts

• Title: Stater: Head of Nymph (Obverse); Nike (Reverse)
• Date: c. 420–400 BCE
• Culture: Greek, minted at Terina (South Italy)
• Type: Coins
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2 cm (13/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1916.982

A detail from the museum

Nike sits on a cippus, a pillar used as a boundary stone or grave marker.

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

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.