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