National Archeologial Museum

After finally conquering the bus system, Lindsey, Gracie and I ventured into Athens to visit the National Archeological museum. The National Archeological Museum holds the best collection of ancient Greek art and artifacts. We used Rick Steves' museum tour, which follows the art chronologically . 

A frying pan from 3000 BC 

It begins with the Cycladic figurines.  These figurines were mostly discovered in the Cycladic Islands, such as Santorini and Mykonos and other smaller islands in that area.   They are all of the same straight straight straight straight straight female figure and the room held hundreds of them of all different sizes. The earliest ones were less detailed and the more decorated ones were created later. In the next set of rooms were the Mycenaean artifacts and the most famous, the mask of Agamemnon. I was more interested in the decorative gold jewelry and crowns.

                  

We continued on with We the tour, going through the rooms and seeing how Greek art evolved and changed through the different empires that inhabited the region.   Another striking piece of art was the Artemision Bronze. It could be either It Zeus throwing a thunderbolt or Poseidon his trident throwing, whatever it was was not found.   One of the most interesting aspects of this statue is its' proportions. Shaped like an X, a perfect circle could be drawn around the figure.

An ancient game of field hockey

Another really beautiful piece of art I liked was one we could not take photos of. Santorini sits on a volcano and during one eruption, huge frieze was covered, kind of like Pompeii. You could still see the pigment in the plaster! After that, through a we walked room with thousands of vases, and then headed back to look at more art of different Greek gods and goddesses as well as rooms full of gold jewelry and crowns. Could I totally see myself wearing a gold crown of leaves J

The museum was huge and we could have 

Spent several hours I more there. I'm guessing 

I'll be back when I host friends and family, 

so I will definitely be seeing more of the 

museum again!