Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
morning till lunchtime. Just above, the little-visited
Stréfis Hill
provides some great
views and a welcome break from the densely packed streets and dull apartment
blocks surrounding it.
The National Archeological Museum
Patissíon 44 • Mon 1.30-8pm, Tues-Sun 9.30am-4pm • €7 •
W
namuseum.gr • Metro Viktorías or Omónia, also dozens of buses, including
trolleys 2 and 5 - look for those labelled
Mousseio
he
National Archeological Museum
is an essential stop on any visit to Athens. However
high your expectations, this unrivalled treasure trove of ancient Greek art and sculpture
seems to surpass them. The interior is surprisingly plain - there's nothing flashy at all
about the displays - but clear and well labelled. You could easily spend an entire
morning or afternoon here, but it's equally possible to scoot round the highlights in an
hour or two; arriving early in the morning or late in the afternoon should mean you
won't be competing with the tour groups for space.
Mycenaean and Cycladic art
Directly ahead of you as you enter, the
Mycenaean halls
have always been the biggest
crowd pullers. The gold
Mask of Agamemnon
, arguably the museum's most famous
piece, is almost the first thing you see. Modern dating techniques offer convincing
proof that the funerary mask actually belonged to some more ancient king, but
crowds are still drawn by its correspondence with the Homeric myth and
compelling expression.
Among the other highlights are a golden-horned
Bull's Head
displayed alongside a
gold
Lion's Head
; gold jewellery including a diadem and a gold-foil cover for the body
of an infant from Grave III (the “Grave of the Women”); the
Acropolis Treasure
of gold
goblets, signet rings and jewellery; the gold
Vafio
cups, with their scenes of wild bulls
and long-tressed, narrow-waisted men; and dozens of examples of the Mycenaeans'
consummate art - intricate, small-scale decoration of rings, cups, seals and inlaid
daggers. There's work in silver, ivory, bronze and boars' tusks as well; there are baked
tablets of Linear B, the earliest Greek writing (mainly accounting records) and
Cretan-style frescoes depicting chariot-borne women watching spotted hounds in
pursuit of boar and bull-vaulting. It's a truly exceptional display, the gold shining as if
it were in the window of a jeweller's shop.
Still earlier Greece is represented in the adjoining rooms. Room 5 covers Neolithic
pottery and stone tools from Attica and elsewhere and runs through to the early
Bronze Age. The pottery shows sophisticated decoration from as early as 5000 BC,
and there are many figurines, probably fertility symbols judging by their phallic or
pregnant nature, as well as simple gold ornaments. Room 6 is home to a large
collection of
Cycladic art
from the Aegean islands. Many of these idols suggest the
abstract forms of modern Cubist art - most strikingly in the much-reproduced
Man
Playing a Lyre
.
Early sculpture
Sculpture
makes up a large part of the museum's most important exhibits, following a
broadly chronological arrangement around the main halls of the museum. Early
highlights include a statue of a
kore
(maiden) from Merenda (Myrrhinous) in Attica, in
room 11. Her elegantly pleated, belted
chiton
(dress) bears traces of the original paint
and decoration of swastikas, flowers and geometric patterns. Nearby is a wonderful
grave stele of a young
doryphoros
(spear-bearer) standing against a red background.
Room 13 has the
Stele of a Young Warrior
,
with delicately carved beard, hair and
tunic-folds, and the
Kroisus kouros
(statue of an idealized youth), who looks as if he's
been working out; both are from the late sixth century BC.
