1 Pediment of the Hekatompedon (570 B.C.)
3 Pediment of the Old Temple and Kritios Boy
5 Temple of Athena Nike and Nike Adjusting Her Sandal Reliefs
6 Side-Trip to Hellenistic and Roman Art
7 Caryatids from the Erechtheion
ΜΟΥΣΕΙΟ ΑΚΡΟΠΟΛΗΣ
Athens’ Acropolis Museum, opened in 2009, was custom-built to showcase artifacts from the Acropolis—the Parthenon sculptures, the original caryatids from the Erechtheion, and much more—complemented by modern exhibits about the Acropolis. The state-of-the-art building that houses the collection is the boldest symbol yet of today’s Athens.
The museum also serves as a sort of 21st-century Trojan horse, intended to lure the famous Parthenon sculptures (the Elgin Marbles) away from London’s British Museum and back to Athens. So far, Britain has refused to give in, for fear of setting a precedent...and getting “me, too” notices from Italy, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and other nations wanting to reclaim the missing pieces of their cultural heritage.
Cost: €5.
Hours: Mon 8:00-16:00, Tue-Sun 8:00-20:00, Fri until 22:00.
Getting There: It’s the giant modern building facing the south side of the Acropolis from across the broad Dionysiou Areopagitou pedestrian drag. The museum is next to the Akropoli Metro stop on Makrigianni, a street lined with restaurants.
Information: Museum guards (with red badges) can answer questions, and a 13-minute video plays continuously in the atrium (level 3); tel. 210-900-0900, www.theacropolismuseum.gr.
Length of This Tour: Allow 1.5 hours.
Baggage Check: There’s a free bag check at the counter near the turnstiles at the base of the ramp (required for big bags).
Photography: No photos are allowed on the ground floor (level 0) or of the Archaic statues on level 1. It’s OK to take photos without flash in the rest of the museum.
Services: A café and gift shop are on the ground floor (level 0); level 2 has a pricey but good restaurant, a bookstore, and great views.
Starring: Marble masterpieces from one of the most influential archaeological sites in human history.
Even as it echoes the ancient history all around it, the Acropolis Museum’s striking, glassy building—designed by Swiss-born, New York-based architect Bernard Tschumi—gives a postmodern jolt to Athens’ otherwise staid, mid-century-concrete cityscape. Its two lower levels are aligned with the foundations of ancient ruins discovered beneath the building (which are exposed and still being excavated). The top floor sits askew, imitating the orientation of the Parthenon. A long terrace extends over the main entry, with café tables stretching toward panoramic views of the Acropolis. The museum’s glass walls maximize the natural light inside the building and also “disappear,” focusing attention on the statuary and views of the Acropolis itself.
Visitors enter into a grand lobby. The ground floor (level 0) has the ticket office, WCs, museum shop, and temporary exhibits. To proceed chronologically through the exhibits, you’d start with the Archaic collection on level 1, then go upstairs (to the top floor—level 3) for the Parthenon section, then back down to level 1 for Hellenistic and Roman sculpture. But for this tour, we’ll do the small Hellenistic and Roman section as an out-of-chronological-sequence side-trip from the Archaic and Classical sections, and let the top-floor Parthenon sculptures be our finale.
After going through the turnstiles, head up the long, glass...
Pause to look through the glass floor at the ancient ruins being excavated beneath the museum. The major buildings of ancient Athens were at the Acropolis and Agora—this was a neighborhood of everyday houses and shops. Appropriately, the ramp is lined with artifacts that were found in the sanctuaries and houses on the slopes leading up to the Parthenon. Many of these artifacts, dating from the fourth millennium B.C. to the fifth-century A.D., owe their well-preserved state to having been buried with their owners.
Ancient Agora Walk Map Key
1 Pediment of the Hekatompedon (570 B.C.)
3 Pediment of the Old Temple and Kritios Boy
5 Temple of Athena Nike and Nike Adjusting Her Sandal Reliefs
Among the ramp’s highlights is case #5 (on the left), which takes you step by step through marriage rituals in ancient Athens. Freestanding cases midramp give insight into the similarities between ancient Greek pagan worship rituals and later Christian styles. One has Christian-looking votives thanking the gods for prayers answered. On the right, just below the stairs, is an offering box (like you see in churches today); this one stood at the Sanctuary of Aphrodite. To assure a good marriage, you’d have been wise to pop in a silver drachma.
Climb the stairs at the top of the ramp toward a collection of statues.
Throughout the centuries, three temples of Athena have occupied the spot where the Parthenon stands today. The fragments assembled here, from 570 B.C., once adorned the Hekatompedon (“100 feet”), the first of those temples. The still-under-construction building was leveled by invading Persians in 480 B.C., paving the way for the Parthenon to be built. On the left, Hercules fights the sea monster Triton. In the center are the scant remains of two lions killing a bull. On the left is Hercules struggling with a sea snake. To the right is a three-headed demon with a snake tail. Each figure holds an object in its hand, representing the elements of wind, water, and fire. While their expressions are more goofy than demonic, they illustrate the struggle of man versus nature. Traces of the original paint are still apparent.
Turn right and enter a gallery flooded with daylight.
In this column-lined gallery stand several kore (female) and kouros (male) statues. They sport the characteristic stiff poses, braided hair, generic faces, and mysterious smiles of the Archaic era (c. 700-480 B.C.). For more on Archaic statues, see here.
The men are generally naked, showing off buff and toned bodies. The bearded dudes are adults, and boys are beardless. The women are modestly clothed, but pull their robes to the side. Before the coming-of-Golden-Age realism and the “wet drapery” technique that enabled sculptors to portray the bodies beneath robes, this was a crude way to lend some motion and to show a little of their figures. The kore statues are almost always holding something: The Greeks believed women shouldn’t approach the gods without a gift of some kind. The equestrian statues represent the upper class, those wealthy elites who owned horses and liked to show them off.
Female kore statue with Archaic smile.
Halfway down the gallery, on the right against the interior wall, is the...
These sculptures once decorated the temple to Athena next to the Hekatompedon. The temple, damaged after the Persian Wars, was used until the new Parthenon was completed. In the center, Athena, dressed in an ankle-length cloak, strides forward, brandishing a snake as she attacks a giant, who sprawls backward onto his bum. The figures were part of a scene depicting the “Gods Versus Giants” battle atop the temple. The pesky Persians invaded Greece several times over a 50-year period (c. 499-449 B.C.). On the plus side, the wars forced Greeks to band together, and Athens emerged as a dominant naval power. Athenians rebuilt the Acropolis as a symbol of rebirth, with the Parthenon as its centerpiece.
Enjoying the statuary in this hall, you can trace the evolution of Greek art from the static Archaic period to the mastery of the body as a living thing, free and full of movement, in the Golden Age. In the Classical style of fifth-century B.C. Greece, the spine moves realistically with the hips. This is nicely illustrated by the nearby Kritios Boy, 10 steps away. Look up at, and then circle, the Kritios Boy as he gracefully seems to step into Greece’s Golden Age.
Continue down the gallery. Near the up escalator, look for a small, well-preserved marble relief.
The goddess, dressed in a helmet and belted peplos, rests her forehead thoughtfully on her spear (460 B.C.). Although she was called “pensive,” some think she was actually meant to be mourning the deaths of her citizens in the Persian War.
Backtrack a tad, then veer left past a bank of elevators. Continue past an open gallery with some statuesque women (we’ll visit them in a minute). After the second bank of elevators, look for a series of four squarish marble slabs on your left.
Nike lifts her leg to adjust her sandal.
This set of reliefs (c. 410 B.C.) originally decorated the parapet of the Temple of Athena Nike (which stands near the entrance to the Acropolis). Nike figures had a better chance of survival through the ages than other statues, because anti-pagan Christian vandals mistook the winged Nikes for angels. Nearby is a display containing more chunks of the Temple of Athena Nike. You’ll see toes gripping rocks, windblown robes, and realistically twisted bodies—exuberant, life-filled carvings signaling Athens’ emergence from the Persian War.
Turn right and go up the long gallery for a...
Before heading upstairs, continue around on this floor to the small stretch of statues from the Hellenistic and Roman period. The head of Alexander the Great, on a square pillar in the center of the gallery, is a rare original, likely sculpted from life (336 B.C.). Alexander’s upper lip curls, and his thick hair sprouts from the center of his forehead—immediately identifying this remarkable man. When he died in 323 B.C., this Macedonian had conquered the rest of Greece, and spread Greek culture throughout the Mediterranean world and as far east as India.
Farther back, visit the spooky “magic sphere” that resembles a dirty soccer ball covered with graffiti. It’s actually a marble sphere etched with mysterious symbols (Roman, second or third century A.D.).
Now turn around, retracing your steps, and turn left at the bank of elevators. Around the corner, on their own, as if starring in their own revue on a beautifully lit stage, are the...
Here stand five of the original six lady-columns that once supported the roof of the prestigious Erechtheion temple. (The six on the Acropolis today are copies; another original is in London’s British Museum.) Despite their graceful appearance, these sculptures were structurally functional. Each has a fluted column for a leg, a capital-like hat, and buttressing locks of hair in the back. The Caryatids were modeled on and named after the famously upright women of Karyai, near Sparta.
Time and the elements have ravaged these maidens. As recently as the 17th century (see the engravings), they had fragile arms holding ritual bowls for libations. Until the 1950s (before modern smog), their worn-down faces had crisp noses and mouths. In a half-century of Industrial Age pollution, they experienced more destruction than in the previous 2,000 years. But their future looks brighter now that they’ve been brought indoors out of the acidic air, cleaned up with a laser, and safely preserved for future generations. (For more on the Caryatids in their original location, see here.)
There’s a glass floor overhead, but you may not want to look up, out of respect for any female visitors wearing dresses above you.
From the Caryatid gallery, walk to the end of the building. At the relief of Pensive Athena, ride the escalators up. Pause at level 2 to enjoy the view down over the Archaic statues we just visited (the second level has a restaurant and terrace with awesome Acropolis views). Then head for the top floor—it’s the reason you’re here.
The escalator deposits you at the “cella”—symbolizing in actual size the inner sanctum of the Parthenon. Before entering the Parthenon Gallery, sit in the atrium and enjoy the video, which covers the temple’s 2,500-year history, including a not-so-subtle jab at how Lord Elgin got the marbles and made off with them to England. (For more on Lord Elgin, see here.
Two models show how the west and east pediment statues (which are mostly fragments today) would have looked in their prime.
The east pediment (the model on the right) features Nike crowning newly born Athena with a wreath of olive branches. Zeus allowed Athena, the goddess of wisdom, to rise from his brain fully grown and fully armed, to inaugurate the Golden Age of Athens. The other gods at this Olympian banquet—naked men and clothed women—are astounded by the amazing event. At the far left, Helios’ four horses are doing their morning chore, dragging the sun out of the sea. And on the far right, Selene, the moon goddess, follows the horses back as she sets into the sea.
The west pediment model (on the left) shows Athena and Poseidon competing for Athens’ favor by giving gifts to the city. Poseidon spurts water (beneath him) and Athena presents an olive tree (behind). A big, heavenly audience looks on. Had Poseidon bested Athena, you’d be in Poseidonia today instead of Athens.
Leave this central zone and enter the huge gallery that rings the cella.
This top floor re-creates the exact dimensions of the Parthenon—with the frieze (mounted lower for easier viewing), the metopes, and the east and west pediments, all in their proper positions.
Study the museum’s highlight—a life-size mock-up of the 525-foot frieze that once wrapped all the way around the outside of the Parthenon. The relief panels depict the Great Panathenaic, the procession held every four years in which citizens climbed up to the Parthenon to celebrate the birth of the city. Circle the perimeter and watch the parade unfold.
Men on horseback, gods, chariots, musicians, priests, riders, officers, warriors, and sacrificial animals are all part of the grand parade, all heading in the same direction—uphill. Prance on. At the heart of the procession are maidens dressed in pleated robes. They shuffle along, carrying gifts for the gods, including incense burners, along with jugs of wine and bowls to pour out offerings. The procession culminates in the presentation of a new peplos to Athena, as the gods look on.
Notice the details—for example, the muscles and veins in the horses’ legs and the intricate folds in the cloaks and dresses. Some panels have holes drilled in them, where accessories such as gleaming bronze reins were fitted to heighten the festive look. Of course, all of these panels were originally painted in realistic colors. As you move along, notice that, despite the bustle of figures posed every which way, the frieze has one unifying element—most of the people’s heads are at the same level, creating a single ribbon around the Parthenon.
Of the original marble frieze, the museum owns only 32 feet. These panels were already so acid-worn in 1801 that Lord Elgin didn’t bother taking them. Filling in the gaps in this jigsaw puzzle are white plaster replicas of panels still in London’s British Museum (marked BM), in Paris’ Louvre, and in Copenhagen. Blank spaces represent panels that are forever lost. Small 17th-century engravings show how the frieze looked before the 1687 explosion that devastated the Parthenon.
Scene from the 525-foot Parthenon frieze, depicting the Panathenaic parade up the Acropolis.
Now stroll through the gallery and look out the windows. Take a moment to...
There’s the Parthenon itself, perched on the adjacent hilltop. The Parthenon is one of the most influential works humankind has ever created. For 2,500 years, it’s inspired generations of architects, sculptors, painters, engineers, and visitors from around the globe. Here in the Acropolis Museum, you can experience the power of this cultural landmark. The people of Athens relish the Acropolis Museum. Local guides grow taller with every visit, knowing that Greece finally has a suitable place to preserve and share the best of its artistic heritage.
The museum’s view restaurant—aged wines and the ancient Parthenon.
On your way down, stop by the restaurant on level 2 for its exterior terrace and the awesome view of the Acropolis.
