Athens, National Archaeological Museum

Q637187

That was not very clever: visiting the National Archaeological Museum on the last day of a two week trip through northern and central Greece. Of course, it was a nice summary of everything we’ve seen, but I think it would have been better to start over here. Ever a teacher, I might have used the museum’s splendid collection of sculpture to explain to my companions the development of Greek art.

That’s what you’ll find on the first floor: lots of sculpture in a series of rooms surrounding a large hall, which is devoted to Mycenaean art. There, you will find the golden objects from Mycenae that Schliemann found. The sculpture rooms surround it. Your tour starts with some kouroi and you can easily follow the growth to greater accuracy in representing the human body. When you’ve finished about a third of your tour, the Greek sculptors have mastered every aspect of anatomy, and you will pass along many classical sculptures, including two dazzling copies of the Diadumenus and the Cnidian Aphrodite. After that, more sculpture: the fourth century, Hellenism, and finally the Roman age.

On the ground floor, there’s also a series of rooms that contain metal art. Here, you will see the Anticythera Mechanism, but also collections of arrowheads from Marathon and Thermopylae. The Egyptian part – also on the ground floor – is a bit odd in a museum dedicated to Greek art, but the collection is too small to be exposed in a museum of its own and too important to keep stored away. In the Hellenistic part of the Egyptian collection, I noticed a statue of Hephaestion that I had never seen before.

Upstairs, you will find a marvelous collection of pottery and some objects that don’t fit anywhere else, like the Lemnian inscription, written in a language related to Etruscan. Next to it is a section dedicated to the investigations at Santorini, where some splendid frescoes have been found.

Do not forget to visit the basement. There’s a little café with a garden, where you will see some of the sculptures found in the Anticythera wreck. They have a certain beauty because they are partly eroded. I found the giant Heracles absolutely fascinating.

This museum was visited in 1989, 1992, 2004, 2007, 2010.

76 pictures related to this museum

Mycene, Wall painting of a griffin with a warrior	Aegina, Ptolemy VI Philometor	Athens, Kerameikos, Skull of Myrthis	Megara, Statue of Dionysus
Dodona, Figurine of Zeus Keraunos	Pharsalus, Krater with a four-horse chariot	Zeus and Ganymedes	Marathon, Arrowheads
Athens, Varvakeion Athena	Argos, Theater, Statue of Aphrodite	Athens, Agora, Late Geometric pyxis	Alexandria, Hephaestion (part of a group with Alexander)
Mycene, Dagger with lion hunt	Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of boxers	Eleusis, Relief of Demeter, Triptolemus, and Kore	Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Palladion
Lycian portrait of Omphale	Sparta, Statue of Julia Aquilia Severa, damaged after her death	Thermopylae, Arrowheads	Lebadeia, Relief of Trophonius
Athens, Kerameikos, Dipylon krater	Aegina, Temple of Apollo, Statue of a wounded warrior	Megiste, Bellerophon sarcophagus.	Olympia, Head of the boxer Satyros
Chalcis-Vromousa, Head of a woman (Roman copy of a Greek original)	Epidauros, Temple of Artemis, Nike	Thebes, Tombstone	Piraeus, Head of a bearded god
Argos, Relief of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos	Corinth, Relief of a hoplite	Piraeus, Funerary stela of Damasistrate	Athens, Kerameikos, Siren
Eleusis, Relief of a drunk Heracles	Hellenistic ruler	Aegina, Tombstone of a young man, holding a bird	Mycene, Boar's tusk helmet
Athens, Kerameikos, Base of the statue of a wrestler	Mycene, House of the Warrior Krater, Warrior Krater	The fight for the body of Patroclus.	Eucratides II of Bactria
Athens, Temple of Zeus, Portrait of Polemo of Laodicea	Piraeus, Statue of a woman or Demeter	Eretria, Lekythos (Bosanquet Painter)	Nysa, Bouleuterion, "Little Refugee"
Athens, Statue of a Minotaur	Alexandria, Alexander the Great (part of a group with Hephaestion)	Eretria, Gymnasium, Statue of Cleonicus	Eleusis, Temple F, Cecrops and Herse
Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Head of Hera	Lemnos, Tombstone of an Etruscan (?) warrior	Decree of Tefnakht	Thebes, Head of Artemis
Corinth, Plate with Demeter	Artemisium, Statue of Zeus	Piraeus, Julian the Apostate	Melos, Statue of Poseidon
Smyrna, Portrait of Caligula, reworked to resemble Titus	Athens, Kerameikos, Alexander with a Lion's Pelt	Eleusis, Tombstone of a warrior	Piraeus, Funerary stela with ball players
Larisa, Tombstone of Polyxena	Thebes (?), Block statue of Prince Horwedja, governor and high priest in Heliopolis	Athens, Stoa of Attalus, Attalus II Philadelphus	Argos, Heraion, Amazonomachy
Oropos, Aeolian-Ionic capital	Athens, Pnyx, Lenormant Athena	Megara, Statue of a Roman emperor (Trajan or Hadrian)	Gomphoi, Relief of Odysseus and Amphicleia
Lead figurine of Athena	Piraeus, Votive stela of a reclining Dionysus	Piraeus, Theater, Head of Dionysus (classicizing)	Sais, Temple of Neith, Statuette
Argos, Heraion, Sima	Larisa, Tombstone of a man with a hat	Mycene, Wall painting ("La Parisienne")	Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of antelopes