National Archaeological Museum Tour

The National Archaeological Museum is far and away the top ancient Greek art collection anywhere. Ancient Greece set the tone for all Western art that followed, and this museum lets you trace its evolution—taking you in air-conditioned comfort from 7000 BC to AD 500 through beautifully displayed and described exhibits on one floor. You’ll see the rise and fall of Greece’s various civilizations: the Minoans, the Mycenaeans, those of Archaic Greece, the Classical Age and Alexander the Great, and the Romans who came from the west. You can also watch Greek sculpture evolve, from prehistoric Barbie dolls, to stiff Egyptian style, to the David-like balance of the golden age, to wet T-shirt, buckin’-bronco Hellenistic, and finally, to the influence of the Romans. Walk once around fast for a time-lapse effect, then go around again for a closer look.

This museum is tired, pretty old-school, and slated for a major renovation (which will mean several years of closure). But until then, it’s still a great way to either start or finish off your sightseeing through Greece. It’s especially worth visiting if you’re traveling beyond Athens, because it displays artifacts found all around Greece, including Mycenae, Epidavros, Santorini, and Olympia—and the treasures displayed here are generally better than those remaining at the sites themselves. The sheer beauty of the statues, vases, and paintings helps bring the country’s dusty ruins to life.

Orientation

Cost: €12, €6 off-season, €15 combo-ticket includes entry to the Byzantine and Christian Museum.

Hours: Wed-Mon 8:00-20:00, Nov-March 8:30-15:30, Tue 13:00-20:00 year-round.

Information: +30 213 214 4800, www.namuseum.gr.

Getting There: The only major Athens sight outside the city center, the museum is a mile north of the Plaka at 28 Oktovriou (a.k.a. Patission) #44. Your best bet is to take a taxi, which costs about €4 from the Plaka. By Metro, use the Omonia stop (as you exit, follow signs to 28 Oktovriou/28 October street, and walk seven blocks to the museum—about 15 minutes). You can also hop a bus: A short walk north of Monastiraki is the Voreu (Βορεου, “North”) stop, where you can catch bus #035; ride it to the Patission (Πατησιων) stop, a block in front of the museum. Or, from Syntagma Square (near the corner of the National Garden), catch bus #2, #4, #5, or #11 to Polytechneio (Πολυτεχνειο). Or you could walk: It’s a straight shot up partly pedestrianized, partly smog-choked Aiolou.

Tours: Download my free National Archaeological Museum audio tour.

Length of This Tour: Allow, at the very least, two hours for this tour; more if you want to dig deeper into this world-class museum.

Baggage Check: Free and required, except for small purses. It’s outside and to the right of the main entrance.

Services: A museum shop, WCs, and an inviting café surround a shady and restful courtyard in the lower level. To get there from the main entrance lobby, take the stairs down behind the ticket desk.

No-no’s: Although photography is allowed, goofy poses in front of statues are not. The Greek museum board considers this disrespectful of the ancient culture and is very serious about it—you may hear “No posing!” from stern guards if they catch someone trying to match Zeus’ thunderbolt-throwing pose.

Eating: The $$$ Museum Garden café in the park in front of the building is pricey, but the generous portions are shareable, and it stays open after the museum closes (nice outdoor tables, or spacious indoor seating).

Starring: The gold Mask of Agamemnon, stately kouros and kore statues, the perfectly posed Artemision Bronze, the horse and jockey of Artemision, and the whole range of Greek art.

The Tour Begins

The collection is delightfully chronological. To sweep through Greek history, simply visit the numbered rooms in order. From the entrance lobby (Rooms 1-2), start with the rooms directly in front of you (Rooms 3-6), containing prehistoric and Mycenaean artifacts. Then circle clockwise around the building’s perimeter (Rooms 7-33) to see the evolution of classical Greek statuary. Keep track of your ticket—you’ll need it to enter or reenter some rooms.

Use the following self-guided tour for an overview, then browse to your heart’s content, using the excellent information posted in each room.

• From the entrance lobby, go straight ahead into the large central hall (Room 4). This first area—Rooms 3-6—is dedicated to prehistory (7000-1050 BC). Start in the small side room to the right, Room 6. In the display case directly to the right as you enter, you’ll find stiff marble figures with large heads, known as...

1 Cycladic Figurines

Goddess, corpse, fertility figure, good-luck amulet, spirit guide, beloved ancestor, or Neolithic porn? No one knows for sure the purpose of these female figurines, which are older than the Egyptian pyramids. Although these statuettes were made only in the Cycladic Islands, well-traveled ones have been found all over Greece. The earliest Greeks may have worshipped a Great Mother earth goddess long before Zeus and company (variously called Gaia, Ge, and other names), but it’s not clear what connection she had, if any, with these statuettes. The ladies are always naked, usually with folded arms. The figures evolved over the years from flat-chested, to violin-shaped, to skinny. There is evidence that the eyes, lips, and ears were originally painted on.

The map (straight across from the entry) shows the circle (or “cycle”) of the Cycladic Islands, with the sacred island of Delos, near Mykonos, in the center. As these islands were in close proximity, there was plenty of trade between them. In the glass case to the right of the map are two interesting figurines. One plays the harp, the other a flute—proof that humans have been making music for at least 5,000 years.

Elsewhere in the long Cycladic Hall, you’ll find more figurines, painted vases, and tools such as knives and spears made of worked obsidian. Finely worked objects like these were popular export items in the peaceful, trade-oriented, artistic Cycladic world. Notice the impressively painted bathtub on the left. And you’ll see carved marble bowls so thin and delicate that light shines through, along with bronze blades, tweezers, needles, and curious “frying pan” grave offerings. All are from around 2500 BC, roughly 1,000 years before the rise of the first great civilization on Greece’s mainland—Mycenae.

• To see the golden treasures of Mycenae, return to the long central hall (Room 4), which is divided into four sections. Here you’ll find the...

2 Mask of Agamemnon and Other Mycenaean Treasures

Room 4 displays artifacts found in the ruins of the ancient fortress-city of Mycenae, 80 miles west of Athens. You’re surrounded by 30 pounds of gold pounded into decorative funerary objects—swords, daggers, armor, and jewelry—all found buried alongside 19 bodies in a circle of Mycenaean graves. Many items were discovered in the cemetery that archaeologists call “Grave Circle A.” (For more on the history of this site, see the Mycenae chapter.) The objects’ intricately hammered detail and the elaborate funeral arrangements point to the sophistication of this early culture.

In the glass case facing the entry door is the so-called Mask of Agamemnon (c. 1550 BC). Made of beaten gold and showing a man’s bearded face, this famous mask was tied over the face of a dead man—note the tiny earholes for the string.

The Mycenaeans dominated southern Greece a thousand years before the golden age (1600-1200 BC). They appear in the misty era of Homer’s (fanciful) legends of the Trojan War, and in the 19th century, the ruins of the real-life Troy (in western Turkey) were unearthed. The archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (the Indiana Johann of his era) suggested that the Mycenaeans were the Greeks who’d conquered Troy (which may be true). So, Schliemann next excavated Mycenae and found this remarkable trove. He went on to declare this funeral mask to be that of the legendary Greek King Agamemnon, who conquered the Trojans. (Unfortunately, that part can’t be true, because the mask predates the fall of Troy around c. 1300 BC.)

Explore more artifacts nearby. On the wall to the left of the mask, find the sheet of gold foil that once wrapped dead babies for burial. On the back side of the Mask of Agamemnon case, there’s a knife and sheath with a warrior-versus-lions scene. Unlike the peaceful Cycladians, the warlike Mycenaeans turned their artistic skills to making weapons.

• In the next section of Room 4, you’ll find...

3 More Mycenaean Artifacts

A model of the Acropolis of Mycenae (left side) shows the dramatic hilltop citadel where many of these objects were unearthed. Find the famous Lion Gate entrance (#1 on the model), the round cemetery known as Grave Circle A (#2), and the king’s royal palace crowning the hill (#8). Midway through Room 4, look for brightly colored frescoes, done in the style of the Mycenaeans’ sophisticated neighbors, the Minoans (and featuring the Minoan sport of bull-jumping). At the end of this area, on the left, clay tablets show the Mycenaean written language known as Linear B, which has a syllabic script (in which marks stand for syllables) that was cracked only in the 1950s.

In the central display case is Schliemann’s favorite find—a painted two-handled vase known as the House of the Warrior Krater (#1426). A woman (far left) waves goodbye to a line of warriors heading off to war, with their fancy armor and duffle bags hanging from their spears. This 3,000-year-old scene of Mycenaean soldiers is timeless, with countless echoes across the generations.

• Continue to the last section of Room 4. In the center, a glass case displays the...

4 Vapheio Cups

These gold cups (c. 1600-1550 BC), found with other precious items in a Mycenaean tomb, are metalwork masterpieces. The intricate worked detail on #1 shows a charging bull sending a guy head over heels. On #2 you’ll see a bull and a cow making eyes at each other, while the hind leg of another bull gets tied up by one good-looking cowboy. These realistic, joyous scenes are the product of the two civilizations that made 15th-century BC Greece the wonder of Europe—the Mycenaeans and the Minoan culture of Crete.

Near where you entered this section, note the light and flexible bone helmet (14th-13th century BC). Made from many pieces of boar tusk, a helmet such as this was a prized possession.

For four centuries (c. 1600-1200 BC), the warlike Mycenaeans dominated Greece. They were rich enough to hire accomplished Minoan artisans to paint their frescoes and decorate their cups. Then, suddenly—whether from invasion, famine, internal strife, or natural disaster—the Mycenaeans disappeared from history’s radar screen. It plunged Greece into the 500-year ancient Dark Ages (c. 1200-700 BC). Little survives from that chaotic time, so let’s pick up the thread of history as Greece began to recover a few centuries later.

• Backtrack to the entrance lobby, then turn right, and begin circling clockwise around the perimeter of the building, starting in Room 7. After scanning your ticket again to enter this room, look for the tall vase on your right.

5 Dipylon Vase

This monumental ocher-and-black vase (c. 750 BC), as tall as a person, is painted with a funeral scene. Vases such as this marked the graves of well-off Greeks; the belly-handled shape of this one tells us it likely honored a woman (men’s graves were typically marked by pedestalled vases).

In the center, the deceased lies on a funeral bier, flanked by a line of mourners who pull their hair in grief. It’s far from realistic. The triangular torsos, square arms, circular heads, and bands of geometric patterns epitomize the style of what’s known as the Geometric Period (9th-8th century BC). A few realistic notes pop through, such as the raw emotions of the mourners and some grazing antelope and ibex (on the neck of the vase). Note the one little child in attendance. Discovered in Athens’ Keramikos Cemetery, the vase gets its name from the nearby Dipylon Gate, the ancient city’s renowned main entrance.

This (relatively) sophisticated vase demonstrates that, after centuries of tumult and war, the Greeks were beginning to settle down. They were establishing cities and expanding abroad (as seen on the map nearby). They were developing a written language and achieving the social stability that could afford to generate art. Next came large-scale statues in stone.

• In Rooms 7-14 you’ll get a look at some of these giant statues, including the early Greek statues called...

Kore and Kouros

Some of the earliest surviving examples of post-Mycenaean Greek art (c. 700-480 BC) are these life-size and larger-than-life statues of clothed young women (kore/korai) and naked young men (kouros/kouroi). Influenced by ancient statues of Egyptian pharaohs, they’re big and stiff, with triangular faces and arms at their sides. But as you walk through the next few rooms, you’ll see the statues become increasingly more realistic and natural in their movements, with more personality.

• Start with the statue facing the vase in the middle of Room 7, a...

6 Kore (c. 650 BC): With hands at her sides and dressed in a full-length robe (called a chiton), this skinny, rectangular kore looks as much like a plank of wood as a woman. Her triangular lion-mane hairstyle resembles an Egyptian headdress. The writing down her left leg says she’s dedicated to Apollo.

• In the next room (Room 8), your eyes go right to a very nice pair of knees that belong to a...

7 Kouros from Sounion (c. 600 BC): A typical kouros from the Archaic period, this young naked man has braided dreadlocks and a stable forward-facing pose, and is stepping forward slightly with his left leg. His fists are clenched at his sides, and his scarred face obscures an Archaic smile—a placid smile that suggests the inner secret of happiness. His anatomy is strongly geometrical and stylized, with almond-shaped eyes, oval pecs, an arched rib cage, cylindrical thighs, trapezoidal knees, and a too-perfect symmetry. While less plank-like than earlier statues, he’s still much flatter than an actual person. The overdeveloped muscles (look at those quads!) and narrow waist resemble those of an athletic teenager.

Rather than strict realism, kouros statues capture a geometric ideal. The proportions of the body parts follow strict rules—for example, most of the later kouros statues are precisely seven “heads” tall. Although this kouros steps forward slightly, his hips remain even (think about it—the hips of a real person would shift forward on one side). The Greeks were obsessed with the human body—remember, these statues were of (idealized) humans, not gods. Standing naked and alone, these statues represented a microcosm of the rational order of nature.

The Four Stages of Greek Sculpture

Archaic (c. 700-480 BC): Rigid statues with stylized anatomy, facing forward, with braided hair and mysterious smiles (see photo).

Severe (c. 480-460 BC): More realistic and balanced statues (with no smiles), capturing a serious nobility. Works from this transitional period are sometimes described as Early Classical.

Classical (c. 460-323 BC): Realistic statues of idealized beauty with poses that strike a balance between movement and stillness, with understated emotion. (Within this period, the golden age was roughly 450-400 BC.)

Hellenistic (c. 323-30 BC): Photorealistic (even ugly) humans engaged in dramatic, emotional struggles, captured in snapshot poses that can be wildly unbalanced.

Statues were painted in vivid, lifelike colors. But the rough surface lacks the translucent sheen of Classical Age statues, because Archaic chisels were not yet strong enough for the detail work without cracking the marble.

Kouros statues were everywhere, presented as gifts to a god at a sanctuary or to honor the dead in a cemetery. This one was dedicated to Poseidon at the entrance to the temple at Sounion. As a funeral figure, a kouros symbolized the deceased in his prime of youth and happiness, forever young.

• Continue into the next room (Room 11). On the left, holding a flower, is a...

8 Kore (c. 550 BC): Where a male kouros was naked and either life-size or larger than life (emphasizing masculine power), a female kore was often slightly smaller than life and modestly clothed, capturing feminine grace (males were commonly naked in public, but women never were). This petite kore stands with feet together, wearing a pleated chiton belted at the waist. Her hair is braided and held in place with a diadem (a wreath-like headdress), and she wears a necklace. Her right hand tugs at her dress, indicating motion (a nice trick if the artist lacks the skill to actually show it), while her left hand holds a flower. Like most ancient statues, she was painted in lifelike colors, including her skin. Her dress was red—you can still see traces of the paint—adorned with flower designs and a band of swastikas down the front. (In ancient times—before German archaeologist Schliemann’s writings popularized it and Hitler appropriated it—the swastika was a harmless good-luck symbol representing the rays of the sun.) This kore, like all the statues in the room, has that distinct Archaic smile (or smirk, as the Greeks describe it). Browse around. Study the body types—the graceful, Avatar-like builds, those mysterious smirks, and the rigid hairdos.

• The next room—a long hall labeled Room 13—has...

9 More Kouroi: These statues, from the late Archaic period (around 500 BC), once decorated the tombs of hero athletes—perhaps famous Olympians. Notice that these young men are slightly more relaxed and realistic, with better-formed thighs and bent elbows.

Farther down Room 13 (left side), find the two square marble Bases for Funerary Kouroi. These were pedestals for kouros statues of the deceased. The carved reliefs are yet another baby step in the artistic march toward realism. On the first base, the relief shows wrestlers and other athletes, with remarkably realistic twisting poses. Around the right side, notice the dog-and-cat fight. The second base features a field hockey-like game, each scene reflecting the vigor of the deceased man in his prime.

During the Archaic period, Greece was prospering, growing, expanding, trading, and colonizing the Mediterranean. The smiles on the statues capture the bliss of a people settling down and living at peace. But in 480 BC, Persia invaded, and those smiles soon vanished.

• Pass through Room 14 and into Room 15, which is dominated by one of the jewels of the collection, the...

10 Artemision Bronze (of Zeus or Poseidon)

This statue was discovered amid a shipwreck off Cape Artemision (north of Athens) in 1928. The weapon was never found, so no one knows for sure if this is Zeus or Poseidon. The god steps forward, raises his arm, sights along his other arm at the distant target, and prepares to hurl his thunderbolt (if it’s Zeus) or his trident (if it’s Poseidon).

The god stands 6’10" and has a physique like mine. His hair is curly and tied at the back, and his now-hollow eyes once shone white with inset bone. He plants his left foot and pushes off with the right. Although every limb moves in a different direction, the whole effect is one of balance. The statue’s dimensions are a study in Greek geometry. His head is one Greek foot high, and he’s six heads tall (or one Greek fathom). The whole figure has an “X” shape that would fit into a perfect circle, with his navel at the center and his fingertips touching the rim. Although the bronze statue—cast with the “lost wax” technique (explained later, under “Artemision Jockey”)—is fully three-dimensional, it’s most impressive from the front. (Later Greek statues, from the Hellenistic era, seem fully alive from every angle, including the three-quarter view.)

This Zeus/Poseidon, from c. 460 BC, is an example of the transition into the Classical style, as sculpture evolved beyond the so-called Severe style (480-460 BC). (The famous charioteer of Delphi, pictured on here, is textbook Severe: far more lifelike than a kouros, but still frontal and unmoving.) Historically, the Severe/Early Classical Period covers the time when Greece battled the Persians and emerged victorious—the era when ordinary men had also just shaken off tyrants and taken control of their own destiny through democracy. The Greeks were entering the dawn of the golden age. During this time of horrific war, the Greeks made art that was serious (no more Archaic smiles) and unadorned, and that expressed the noble strength and heroism of the individuals who had carried them through tough times. The statues are anatomically realistic, celebrating the human form.

With his movements frozen, as if Zeus/Poseidon were posing for a painting, we can examine the wonder of the physical body. He’s natural yet ideal, twisting yet balanced, moving while at rest. (Later Greek sculptures would improve upon this, with figures that look almost as if they’ve been caught mid-motion with the click of a camera.) With his geometrical perfection and godlike air, the figure sums up all that is best about the art of the ancient world.

We’re entering the golden age.

• Continue into Room 16, filled with big marble vases labeled 11 Attic Funerary Monuments. These grave markers take the shape of the ceramic urns used for the ashes of cremated bodies. Vase #4485 is particularly touching: A grieving family looks on as Hermes (with his winged sandals) leads a young woman to the underworld.

Continue into Room 17, then turn right into Room 19. (Note that the WCs and café are out the door ahead of you.) Turn right in Room 19, then hook left into Room 20. At the far end of this room is item #129, the...

12 Athena Varvakeion

This marble statue, known as the Athena Varvakeion (c. AD 250), is considered the most faithful copy of the great Athena Parthenos (438 BC) by Pheidias. It’s essentially a one-twelfth-size replica of the 40-foot statue that once stood in the Parthenon. Although a miniature copy of the glorious original, it provides a good introduction to Greek art at its golden age pinnacle. Athena stands dressed in flowing robes, holding a small figure of Nike (goddess of victory) in her right hand and a shield in her left. Athena’s helmet sprouts plumes with winged horses and a sphinx. To give a sense of scale of the original, the tiny Nike in Athena’s hand was six feet tall in the Parthenon statue. Athena is covered in snakes. She wears a snake belt and bracelet; coiled snakes decorate her breastplate; and a snake is curled up inside her shield, representing the goddess’ connection to her half-snake son, who was born out of the earth and considered to be one of the ancestors of the Athenians. The snake-headed Medusa (whom Athena helped Perseus slay) adorns the center of her chest.

• Backtrack to Room 17, turn right, and continue circling the museum clockwise into Room 18, which has...

13 Funeral Steles

The tombstones that fill this room, all from the fifth century BC, are more good examples of golden age Greek art. With a mastery of the body, artists show poignant scenes of farewell, as loved ones bid a sad goodbye to the dead, who are seated. The tombstone in the center of the room depicts a rich woman pondering which treasure from her jewel box to take with her into eternity. On the left wall, a woman who died in childbirth looks at her baby, held by a servant as it reaches for its dead mother. Other scenes include a beautiful young woman, who died in her prime, gazing into a mirror. Servants are shown taking part in the sad event, as if part of the family.

Though shallow reliefs, these works are effectively three-dimensional. There’s a timeless melancholy in the room, a sense that no matter who you are—or how rich—when you go, you go alone...and shrouds have no pockets.

• Pass into Room 21, a large central hall. We’ll take a temporary break from the chronological sequence to see statues dating from the second century BC, when Greece was ruled by Rome. The hall is dominated by the...

14 Artemision Jockey

In this bronze statue (c. 140 BC), the horse is racing in full stride, as a young jockey hangs on for dear life. The statue was recovered in pieces from the seafloor off Cape Artemision. Missing were the reins the jockey once held in his left hand and the whip he used with his right to spur the horse to go even faster—maybe too fast, judging by the look on his face.

Greeks loved their horse races, and this statue may celebrate a victory at one of the Panhellenic Games. The jockey is dressed in a traditional short tunic and has inlaid eyes. His features indicate that he was probably ethnically part Ethiopian.

The statue, like other ancient bronzes, was made not by hammering sheets of metal, but with the classic “lost wax” technique. The artist would first make a rough version of the statue from clay, cover it with a layer of wax, and then cover that with another layer of clay to make a form-fitting mold. When heated in a furnace to harden the mold, the wax would melt—or be “lost”—leaving a narrow space between the clay model and the mold. The artist would then pour molten bronze into the space, let it cool, break the mold, and—voilà!—end up with a hollow bronze statue. This particular statue was cast in pieces, which were then welded together. After the cast was removed, the artist added a few surface details and polished it smooth. Notice the delightful detail on the rider’s spurs, which were lashed to his bare feet.

Stylistically, we’ve gone from stiff Archaic, to restrained Severe, to balanced Classical...to this wonderful example of the unbridled emotion of Hellenism. It doesn’t sit primly, but dominates its space.

The other statues in the room are second-century BC Roman copies of fifth-century BC Greek originals. Thanks to excellent copies like the ones in this room, we know what many (otherwise lost) golden age Greek masterpieces looked like. (By the way, when the Romans tried to re-create a bronze statue in marble, they often added extra support. So, if you see a tree trunk buttressing some statue, it’s likely a Roman copy.)

• But, with the Romans, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. To pick up where we left off (in the golden age), head straight past the jockey into Room 22 (with pediment reliefs). Then pass through a couple of rooms displaying funeral monuments until you reach the long Room 28, where you’ll come face-to-face with a large...

15 Grave Relief of a Horse

The spirited horse steps lively and whinnies while an Ethiopian boy struggles with the bridle and tries to calm him with food. The realistic detail of the horse’s muscles and veins is astonishing, offset by the panther-skin blanket. The horse’s head pops out of the relief, becoming fully three-dimensional. The boy’s pose is slightly off-balance, anticipating the “unposed poses” of later Hellenism (this relief is from the late fourth century BC). We sense the emotions of both the overmatched boy and the nervous horse. We also see a balance between the horse and boy, with the two figures creating a natural scene together rather than standing alone.

• Farther down Room 28 stands the impressive, slightly larger-than-life-size...

16 Bronze Statue of a Youth

Scholars can’t decide whether this statue (c. 340-330 BC) is reaching out to give someone an apple or demonstrating a split-finger fastball. He may be Perseus, holding up the head of Medusa, but he’s most likely the mythical Paris, awarding a golden apple to the winner of a beauty contest between goddesses (sparking jealousies that started the Trojan War). Imagine how striking this statue would have been in its original full shine, before the bronze darkened with age.

The figure is caught mid-step as he reaches out, gazing intently at the person he’s giving the object to. Split this youth vertically down the middle to see the contrapposto (or “counter-poise”) stance of so many Classical statues. His left foot is stable, while the right moves slightly, causing his hips to shift. Meanwhile, his right arm is tense while the left hangs loose. These subtle, contrary motions are in perfect balance around the statue’s vertical axis.

In the Classical Age, statues reached their peak of natural realism and balanced grace. During the following Hellenistic Period, sculptors added to that realism, injecting motion and drama. Statues are fully three-dimensional (and Hellenistic statues even more so, as they have no “front”: You have to walk around them to see the whole picture). Their poses are less rigid than those in the Archaic period and less overtly heroic than those of the Severe. The beauty of the face, the perfection of the muscles, the balance of elegant grace and brute power—these represent the full ripeness of the art of this age.

• Continue into the small Room 29. To the left of the next doorway, find a black bronze head in a glass case. Look into the wild and cynical inlaid eyes of this...

17 Head from a Statue of a Philosopher

This philosopher was a Cynic, part of a movement of nonmaterialist nonconformists founded in the fourth century BC by Diogenes. The term “cynic” aptly describes these guys with unkempt hair who questioned their society’s obsessions with wealth and status. The statue’s aged, bearded face captures the personality of a distinct individual and is considered a portrait of a real-life person.

From c. 240 BC, it’s typical of the Hellenistic Period, the time after the Macedonian Alexander the Great conquered Greece and spread Greek culture across the Mediterranean world. Hellenistic Greek society celebrated individualism and everyday people like this. Rather than Photoshop out their eccentricities, they presented their subjects warts and all. For the first time in history, we see human beings in all their gritty human glory: with wrinkles, male-pattern baldness, saggy boobs, and middle-age spread, all captured in less-than-noble poses.

The glass case to the left shows other parts of his body. The statue was likely shipped in pieces (like an Ikea self-assembly kit) for practical purposes.

This statue, like a number of the museum’s statues, was found by archaeologists on the seabed off the coast of Greece. Where the wreck off Cape Artemision gave us Zeus/Poseidon and the bronze horse, another wreck (off the Greek mainland’s southern tip) yielded this statue and the bronze youth (depicting Paris/Perseus).

• Continue into the long Room 30 and head to the far end to find the...

18 Statue of a Fighting Gaul

Having been wounded in the thigh (note the hole), this soldier has fallen to one knee and reaches up to fend off the next blow. The style of his helmet indicates that he’s not a Greek, but a Gaul (from ancient France). The artist catches the exact moment when the tide of battle is about to turn. The face of this Fighting Gaul says he’s afraid he may become the Dying Gaul.

The statue (c. 100 BC) sums up many of the features of Hellenistic art: He’s frozen in motion in a wild, unbalanced pose that dramatizes his inner thoughts. The diagonal pose runs up his left leg and out his head and outstretched arm. Rather than a noble, idealized god, this is an ordinary soldier caught in an extreme moment. His arms flail, his muscles strain, his eyes bulge, and he cries out in pain. This statue may have been paired with others in a theatrical mini-drama that heightened emotion. Hellenism shows us the thrill of victory, and—in this case—the agony of defeat.

• To the right in the same room, on the other side of the doorway, is a...

19 Statue of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros

In this playful marble ensemble (c. 100 BC) from the sacred island of Delos, Aphrodite is about to whack Pan with her sandal. Striking a classic contrapposto pose (with most of her weight on one foot), Aphrodite is more revealing than modest, her voluptuous body polished smooth. There’s a bit of whimsy here, as Aphrodite seems to be saying, “Don’t! Stop!”...but may instead be saying, “Don’t stop.” The actions of the (literally) horny Pan can also be interpreted in two ways: His left arm is forceful, but his right is gentle—holding her more like a dance partner. Eros, like an omnipresent Tinkerbell, comes to Aphrodite’s aid—or does he? He has the power to save her if she wants help, but with a hand on Pan’s horn and a wink, Eros seems to say, “OK, Pan, this is your chance. Come on, man, go for it.” Pan can’t believe his luck. This marble is finer than those used in earlier statues, and it has been polished to a sheen with an emery stone. As you walk around this delightful statue, enjoy the detail, from the pudgy baby feet and the remnants of red paint on the sandal to the way the figures all work together in a cohesive vignette.

• Now, enter Room 31 to see a...

20 Statue of the Emperor Augustus

This statue of Augustus (c. 12-10 BC) introduces us to the next great era of ancient Greece—as a part of the vast Roman Empire. Augustus, the adopted son of Julius Caesar, was the founder of the Roman Empire and its first emperor. This is the only known statue of him on horseback, although it is missing its lower half. He holds the (missing) reins in his left hand and raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing or of oration—an expression of the emperor’s power.

Although Greece was conquered by Rome, Greek culture ultimately “conquered” the Romans. The Romans were great warriors, engineers, and administrators, but they had an inferiority complex when it came to art. Grecophile Romans imported Greek statues and cranked out high-quality copies to beautify their villas. (Even today, most “Greek” statues in Europe are actually Roman copies.) As Augustus remade the city of Rome, he used Greek-style columns and crossbeams—a veneer of sophistication on buildings erected with no-nonsense, brick-and-concrete Roman-arch engineering. It’s largely thanks to the Romans and their respect for Greek culture that so much of this ancient art survives today.

• For more Roman-era art, step into Room 32 and find a portrait of a beautiful woman asleep on a rock.

21 Sleeping Maenad (and Friends)

In the center of the room is a marble statue (c. AD 120) featuring a sleeping Maenad, a female follower of the god Dionysus. This Roman copy was made during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. Like a sleeping beauty, this slumbering Maenad lies exposed atop a rock on a soft skin of a panther. As if being mooned by the Maenad, a bust of the emperor himself stands on the nearby wall. (He politely averts his eyes.)

Nearby, find a bust of Hadrian. This Roman emperor was a Grecophile in two senses—he not only loved Greek culture, but he also had a hunky young Greek boyfriend named Antinous. To Hadrian’s left is a fine portrait bust (labeled simply “male portrait”) that may depict Antinous (or is it Channing Tatum?). Look into his disarmingly beautiful eyes. After the young man drowned in the Nile in AD 130, the depressed Hadrian had him deified and commissioned statues of him throughout the empire.

• Although Greece flourished under the Romans, their time was coming to an end. Continue into Room 33 to see...

22 Busts from the Late Roman Empire

These busts (AD 300-500) capture the generic features and somber expressions of the late Roman Empire. As Rome decayed and fell to invaders, ancient culture and artwork went into steep decline. The empire shifted its capital eastward to Constantinople (modern Istanbul). For the next thousand years, the Byzantine Empire, which included Greece, lived on as a Christian, Greek-speaking enclave, while Western Europe fragmented into various smaller realms. During that time, ancient Greek culture was buried under centuries of rubble. Then, during the Renaissance (c. 1300), there was a renewed interest in the glory of ancient Greece. Gradually, Greek sites were unearthed, its statues cleaned up and repaired, and Greek culture once again was revived in all its inspirational glory.

• Exit into the entrance lobby and take a breath. You’ve seen the core of this museum and its highlights. If you have an appetite for more, consider one more stop: some colorful frescoes as old as Stonehenge but as fresh as today.

To get there, return to the boy on the horse. Behind the horse (in Rooms 34-35), find the grand 23 staircase. Climb to the top of the stairs, continue straight into Room 48, and go to the far end of the room to see...

Cycladic Wall Paintings

These magnificent paintings are a product of the first great Greek civilization: the Minoans. These murals once decorated the walls of homes at Akrotiri on the island of Santorini (Thira). When the island’s volcano blew in a massive, bigger-than-Krakatoa eruption (c. 1630 BC), it preserved these frescoes in a thick blanket of ash.

Akrotiri’s people shared an artistic tradition with the Minoans (centered on the isle of Crete). Unlike most early peoples, they were not fighters but traders, and their industriousness made them rich. Their homes and palaces were unfortified, featuring elaborate furniture (like the bed in the next room, cast in plaster from a hole in the ash). The walls were decorated with colorful frescoes like these, which celebrate life in rolling springtime landscapes and everyday scenes.

Two boys, perhaps a prince and his servant, box (notice their mostly shaved heads). An antelope buck turns to make eyes at a doe. Flirting swallows soar over hillsides of lilies. The frescoes are vivid, featuring primary colors of red, yellow, and blue, with thick black outlines. Some parts were painted while the plaster was still wet, so the pigments were absorbed, resulting in the glowing translucent effect that distinguishes these paintings. Remember that most early cultures used art only as propaganda for a king, to commemorate a famous battle, or to represent a god. But the Aegeans were among the first to love beauty for its own sake. That love of beauty became part of the legacy of ancient Greece.

• Whew! Our tour is over. There’s lots more to see in the museum, though—science and tech buffs in particular may want to seek out the Antikythera mechanism, known as the world’s first computer (in rooms 38 and 39).