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