Greece Day 2, Athens - National Archaeological Museum

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27 Oct 2007

After spending part of the morning at Kerameikos I decided to make my way towards the National Archaeological museum on foot (via the red line below).

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A Jewish Synagogue


Simple looking church



There are actually quite a number of chinese and indian shops around.

I finally arrived at the National Archaeological Museum after a long walk. After telling the lady at the counter that I am a student from some far away land, I purchased my discounted ticket and went in. There are lots of marble monuments and statues as well as some famous bronze ones with amazing detail.

Grave monument

Asklepios (Asclepius) the Greek demi-god of healing and medicine. He is always portrayed with serpent entwined on a rod which is now a common symbol in medicine. Supposedly he died sometime during or after the Trojan war when Hades got pissed with him for reviving the dead and had Zeus send a thunderbolt through his head. Later Zeus placed him among the stars.

A bust of Antinoos, lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian, note the details of the hair


Boar hunting


Bronze statue of Emperor Augustus, I always wondered how do they shape these things.


Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros


Poseidon, I think his trident is missing


Theatre Mask. I doubt they really carried this around...



Head and arm of a once colossal statue of Zeus


This bronze statue is believed to be either Paris holding an apple towards Aphrodite (to indicate she was the most attractive among Athena and Hera), or Perseus holding the head of Medusa the Gorgon. The latter is more widely believed to be correct.


A wealth (crown)



Statue of Dionysus the Greek god of wine borrowed from the Vatican. It beats me why they would keep this since ancient times.


Eros tugging away at someone.


Greek helmets

Now guess what these are? They were arrow-heads and spear tips recovered from Thermopyle where 300 Spartans & 700 other Greeks faced Xerxes' mighty army. Analysis of the arrow-head types show that they came from different parts of Asia. Thereby confirming that the battle indeed took place against a Persian army comprising of warriors from all over Asia.

Aphrodite


Pottery with the black paint style of Greek warriors.


The more advanced red-paint style allowed more details. Here Heracles (Hercules) is beating up some king and his servants.


Hermes, distinctively recognised by his unique helmet.


One of the most famous bronze statues of Zeus. It is simply amazing as it balances perfectly on its feet!


A Kouros, these were early Greek statues which represented the perfect male youth.


This is a female Kouros, hardly perfect to me.


A write-up of the Kouroi (plural of Kouros). Note the size of the statues found in the bottom of the picture. The largest was 3m tall.


This is the largest Kouros found, it is 3m tall. Imagine a whole street lined with these.


A small statue of Athena, somehow she looks like she is ready to fly to the moon.


Mycenae gold. The Mycenae era is basically one of the most ancient eras whereby much of it is intertwined with myth. The Trojan war took place during the Mycenae era.


Piece containing the Linear B script that is still not deciphered.


The kind of weapons used during the Trojan war.


Ceremonial sword


A really ancient statue, now is this a man or a woman?


Frying pans!


An interesting bear cup

Having had my fill of ancient artifacts the Museum has to offer, I sat right outside for a snack of Snickers and Mammee. Next up was the colossal Temple of Olympian Zeus that took 500 years to build. Being too tired to walk all the way back towards the Temple, I decided to take a trolley along the yellow route (in the map) to speed up my journey.

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