Stater: Pegasos (obverse); Head of Athena (reverse) (c. 350–338 BCE): Art, History and Details

Stater: Pegasos (obverse); Head of Athena (reverse) (c. 350–338 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

On the obverse of this coin, the divine winged horse Pegasos takes flight, its front legs rearing up to the left. On the reverse, Athena, who gave the Corinthian hero Bellerophon the reins to tame Pegasos, wears a Corinthian-style helmet and is accompanied by a mask of the satyr-god Silenos. Repeated in this coinage, the story of Pegasos became an integral part of Corinthian mythology.

Object facts

• Title: Stater: Pegasos (obverse); Head of Athena (reverse)
• Date: c. 350–338 BCE
• Culture: Greece, Corinth
• Type: Coins
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2.1 cm (13/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1916.984

A detail from the museum

The archaic letter Ϙ, koppa, on the obverse abbreviates the early spelling of Corinth (ϘΟΡΙΝΘΟΣ).

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.