Pentadrachm (Coin) Portraying King Ptolemy I Soter
285-247 BCE, issued by King Ptolemy II Philadelphos
- Medium
- Gold
- Classification
- Coin
- Dimensions
- Diam.: 2.4 cm (1 in.)
- Culture
- Cyprus
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
- Credit line
- Gift of Martin A. Ryerson
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
Obverse: Head of Ptolemy I right, diademed and wearing an aegis Reverse: Eagle stands left on fulmen, wings folded
Ptolemy II used the portrait of the founder of the dynasty, Ptolemy I, on his coin. On the obverse, the aegis (a magical garment) worn by Ptolemy I alluded to Zeus as well as Athena; it was thought to protect the wearer and repel enemies, and it underscored the divine origins of the dynasty. On the reverse the eagle and the thunderbolt also recall Zeus, with whom, in the form of Zeus-Ammon, the early Ptolemaic dynasty associated itself.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
