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

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