Athens, Greece I (4/27/2025)

Sunday, April 27, 2025

The morning included shore excursion began where
we were docked at the port city of Piraeus, passing
the small harbor of Zea, in the rain

Next passing the harbor of Mikrolimano

Peace and Friendship Stadium (1985, renovated 2000-2004
for the 2004 Summer Olympics volleyball)

Now in Athens:

Panathenaic Stadium (c 330 BCE) hosted the opening and
closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896;
for the 2004 Summer Olympics it hosted archery and
was the end of the marathon for both men and women

Oh, boy! The Evzones/Presidential Guard on their
way to the Changing of the Guard at the
Monument to the Unknown Soldier

Hellenic Parliament (1836, by Friedrich von Gärtner
in Neoclassical style, as the palace of the king);
in 1924 the Greek Republic was established and
renovations were made for Parliament to move in 1935

Holy Catholic Cathedral of Saint Dionysius the Areopagite
(1853-1865, by Leo von Klenze in Neo-Renaissance style)
is the principle Roman Catholic Church in Athens

Hall of the Academy of Athens (1859-1889, by
Theophil Hansen in Neoclassical style)

National Library (1888-1902, by Theophil Hansen
in Neoclassical style)

National Archaeological Museum (1866-1889,
by Panagis Kalkos, Armodios Vlachos, and Ernst Ziller
in Neoclassical style), which we visited

Monumental Grave Amphora
(760-750 BCE) held cremated remains

This amphora is decorated with mourners in the
traditional gesture of hands on the head

Sounion Kouros/Greek sculpture of male youth
(c 600 BCE) that idealized the human form
as influenced by the Egyptians, but moved
from rigidity to wearing a smile

Kore/Greek sculpture of female youth
(550-540 BCE) that were always clothed, with
our guide holding the Viking Saturn "lollipop"

Base (c 510 BCE) for a kouros statue, showing wrestlers

Statue (c 460 BCE) of Zeus or Poseidon,
which at one time held a thunderbolt or
trident, illustrates the advance from
rigid statues to those with movement
and more detailed anatomy

Very few original Greek bronze sculptures are seen, because the Romans took them and melted them down for making armaments (after first making a marble copy). The bronze statues in this museum were found in shipwrecks.

Statuette (490-480 BCE) of Zeus, identified
by the thunderbolt in his right hand and
an eagle on his left hand

Grave marker of a youth who appears to
have opened a bird cage, but holds the bird
in his left hand, and has a young attendant
to mourn him under a pillar with a cat 

Statuette (early 3C CE) of Athena, a copy
of the statue that stood in the Parthenon

Artemision Jockey (c 140 BCE) was also found in
the same shipwreck as the statue of Zeus/Poseidon

Marble copy (2C CE) of Aphrodite;
the original was created c 4C BCE

Vapheio gold cups (1500-1400 BCE)
feature scenes of capturing bulls

Statue (340-330 BCE) who could either be
Perseus holding the head of Medusa,
or Paris holding an apple to award
Aphrodite as the most beautiful goddess

Statue (29 BCE-14CE) of Roman Emperor Augustus;
it is said that Roman statues are clothed and do not smile

Sometimes statues were recycled, such
as this body that was given a new head

A roomful of busts of Hadrian

Statue (160 CE copy of 4C BCE original)
of Asclepius, the god of healing,
with his Rod of Asclepius

Ivory Triad (15-14C BCE) with great detail

Gold tableware (16C BCE) from Mycenae 

Infant burial masks and body shields of gold

Funerary mask and shield (1550-1500 BCE)
discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876
in Mycenae, was, for a time, thought to
be a fake created by Schliemann

On our own:

We had to ask for directions multiple times to find the
Antikythera Mechanism/a clockwork device (150-100 BCE),
and did not realize we were looking for 82 fragments!

A rendering of the Antikythera Mechanism/
the oldest known example of an analog computer
that showed movements of the sun and moon,
predicted eclipses, calculated the positions of the
five known planets, tracked the four-year cycle
of the Olympics, among other functions

Next: Athens II: The Acropolis.