National Museum: Marble, Marble, Marble

Classical Athens must have been an amazing sight: Lots of marble (though probably not in all areas) and some of it in vivid colours! Here I present you some marble reliefs and statues (unfortunately, I had to skip some marble statues and life-like bronze statues with ultra-realistic glass eyes due to technical problems).

This is a bilingual inscription by Antipater (a Macedon king). The second alphabet is an archaic Greek one and written from right to left.

Here we see some awesome music: A composed guy on the harp and a bad boy on the double flute are rocking out while the faceless guy in the middle does not seem to be impressed.

This sarcophagus depicts a wild hunt: Six men were hunting a boar, but one of them fell to the ground and is keeping the animal at bay with his feet while his companions use clubs to bash it. Is the man on the ground the one whose corpse is in the sarcophagus? Who knows?

Here we see a young nobleman with a trimmed beard next to his library ... he could be a philosopher.

Again, the male treatment of women is a topic here (read my last post): The couple on the left seems quite happy together, but the ones on the right seem to be at strife. Another statue that you did not see here is the Venus Kallipygos, "Venus with a nice ass" literally ... Ancient Greek public art was indeed sensual without problems! They celebrated corporality and sexuality, as the many sports games and fertility rituals show. In our times, sexuality has been overtaken by advertisements and the entertainment industry ... let's not forget how beautiful and useful strong and healthy bodies are (while not neglecting our intelligence and soul, of course - otherwise the dead philosophers would rise from their graves and haunt us to remind us of their seminal works!).

With these deliberations, I shall conclude the musea visits in Athens - after that, we had some great food (gyros, the same as kebab, just in Greek) and went to the plain of Marathon by bus. Let's take a short break, pat yourself on the shoulder for making it this far and see you in my next post outside of Athens!

Photo gallery