Tetradrachm: Head of Athena (obverse); Owl (reverse) (480–449 BCE): Art, History and Details

Tetradrachm: Head of Athena (obverse); Owl (reverse) (480–449 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Incorporating the first three letters of the city name—ΑΘΕ—with then-iconic images of the patron goddess Athena and her owl, the Athenian tetradrachm was among the most widely traded and most recognizable coins of the ancient world. The olive leaves on Athena’s helmet and the small crescent moon behind the owl date this coin after the Persian Wars.

Object facts

• Title: Tetradrachm: Head of Athena (obverse); Owl (reverse)
• Date: 480–449 BCE
• Culture: Greek, minted at Athens (Attica)
• Type: Coins
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Overall: 2.4 cm (15/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1920.267

A detail from the museum

The three letters on the reverse—ΑΘΕ—mark this as an Athenian coin.

Collection credit

Gift of Harold W. Parsons

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 7, no. 8 (1920): 123-26.

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.