Athens, National Archaeological Museum

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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

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