Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying King Ptolemy II Philadelphos and Queen Arsinoe II
Date:
After 270 BCE, issued by King Ptolemy II, reign of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II, 285–247 BCE
Artist:
Greek, Ptolemaic; Egypt
About this artwork
The front (obverse) of this coin portrays the heads of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II, facing to the right. The back (reverse) portrays the head of Ptolemy I and Berenice I, facing to the right.
The son and daughter of Ptolemy I inherited the crown of Egypt jointly. Following the customs of Egyptian pharaohs, Ptolemy II (reigned 285–246 BCE) and Arsinoe II (reigned 276–270 BCE) married and ruled as both siblings and spouses. To celebrate their partnership they commissioned this remarkable coin. On his coins, Ptolemy I presented himself as a Greek, and specifically a Macedonian, king.
Tetradrachm (Coin) Portraying King Ptolemy II Philadelphos and Queen Arsinoe II
Place
Egypt (Minted in)
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Obverse: A°E°ØΩN [of the siblings]
Reverse: _ EΩN [of the gods]
Dimensions
Diam.: 2.1 cm (7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of William F. Dunham
Reference Number
1922.4256
IIIF Manifest
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Art Institute of Chicago, “New Coins in the Classical Collection,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago vol. 16, no. 4 (September 1922) p. 50-51.
Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New York: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 46, fig. 3.1.
Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. Exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 93, cat. 39.
Elizabeth Hahn Benge, “From Aegina to Andronicus: A Survey of Coinage at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Historia Mundi n. 5 (January 2016), pp. 206-7 (fig. 9).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
The Art Institute of Chicago, When the Greeks Ruled: Egypt After Alexander the Great, October 31, 2013 - July 27, 2014; traveled to New York, NY, The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, October 8, 2014 - January 4, 2015.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, Nov. 8, 2012 - July 29, 2013 and March 17, 2016 - June 30, 2021.
William F. Dunham (1857-1936), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
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