copy, exhibit case layout
Object label written for the reinstallation of the Greek and Roman Galleries of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art.
Unknown artist, Greek
Two-drachma coin (didrachm), 575-400 BCE
Silver
The Greek colony of Metapontum on the southern tip of the Italian peninsula was primarily a farming colony. The city’s patron goddess was Demeter, the goddess of crops, and their civic symbol was the ear of barley. Like the coins representing patron deities who were worshipped throughout the rest of the Greek world, this coin depicts a crop which, though especially important to the residents of Metapontum, was used throughout the Mediterranean region. It is an example of the many unifying traits and aims of ancient Greece, in spite of its myriad states and divisions.