Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
above the statues—in Greek, of course—help identify the combatants; the modern English
letters below may prove more helpful.
Find the
Athena
panel. Athena (faceless, in the center, with the shield) and Nike (all
that'sleftareherwings,rightarm,andleftleg)pullthechiefgiantAlkyoneus(hissnakelegs
curling around his bicep) up by his hair—breaking his connection to the earth, the source
of his immortality. Below them, Gaia—the mother of the giants—rises up from her subter-
ranean realm to lend a hand. (See the fear in Gaia's and Alkyoneus' tortured eyes.) Alky-
oneus would survive this brush with Athena, only to be killed soon after by Hercules. (The
statue of Hercules is missing—all that survives is one pathetic paw of his lion pelt.)
The
Zeus
panel shows the (headless) king of the gods raining lightning bolts down on
his enemies—including the snake-legged Porphyrion, with his back(side) toward us. Notice
Zeus' disembodied right hand up above, ready to pitch some serious heat. Fans of Greek
mythology can take a slow walk along the entire length of the frieze, identifying their favor-
ite gods and giants...the gang's all here. Before long, the giants will be history, and the gods
can go back about their usual business of conspiring against each other and impregnating
mortals.
Facing the altar stairs, go through the door to your left. The intricate, ancient Greek
mo-
saic floor
is finely assembled from miniscule pebbles, with a particularly impressive floral
motif decorating the border. In the otherwise undecorated box in the middle, in what looks
like an ancient Post-It note, you can see where the artist “signed” his work. The Athena
statue standing in the middle of the room is a replica of one that once stood at the center
of Athens' Acropolis. Turn around to see the doorway you just came through, surrounded
bytheoriginal,double-deckerornamentalentrywaytothePergamonAcropolis.Ancientpil-
grims who had come from far and wide to worship the gods in Pergamon passed through
here on their way to the altar.
Return to the altar room, cross straight through it, and go out the door on the far side.
From Pergamon, flash-forward 300 years (and travel south 110 miles) to the ancient Ro-
man city of Miletus. Dominating this room (on your right) is the 95-foot-wide, 55-foot-high
Market Gate of Miletus,
destroyed by an earthquake centuries ago and now painstakingly
reconstructed here in Berlin. The exquisite mosaic floor from a Roman villa in Miletus has
two parts: In the square panel, the musician Orpheus strokes his lyre to charm the animals;
in stark contrast, in the nearby rectangular mosaic (from an adjacent room), hunters pursue
wild animals.
Step through the market gate and all the way back to 575
B.C.
, to the Fertile Cres-
cent—Mesopotamia (today's Iraq). The Assyrian ruler Nebuchadnezzar II, who amassed a
vast empire and enormous wealth, wanted to build a suitably impressive processional entry-
way to his capital city, Babylon, to honor the goddess Ishtar. His creation, the
Ishtar Gate,
inspired awe and obedience in anyone who came to his city. This is a reconstruction, us-
