Athens, National Archaeological Museum

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

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