The ancient city of Neapolis (near modern Kavala, Greece) was famous for its horse-breeding, so they chose to honor the snake-haired Medusa, mother of the miraculous winged horse Pegasus, on the front (obverse) of their coins. On the back (reverse), they depicted the maiden Parthenos, a local moon goddess and patron of the city. These images helped link Neapolis to a set of Greek deities and myths shared by city-states across the Mediterranean.
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.
IIIF Manifest
The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.
Gross-Diaz, Theresa, “Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1994), pp. 45, no. 29, 48 (ill).
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 29.
Elizabeth Hahn Benge, “From Aegina to Andronicus: A Survey of Coinage at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Historia Mundi n. 5 (January 2016), p. 206-7 (fig. 8).
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 155, April 20, 1994 - February 22, 2004 and May 16, 2004 - February 6, 2012.
Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Centaur’s Smile: The Human Animal in Early Greek Art, February 22 – May 16, 2004.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 151, November 11, 2012 - present.
Martin A. Ryerson (1856-1932), Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
