Discover some diverse museums in Athens including the Byzantine Museum, the Benaki Museum and the Museum of Greek Musical Instruments
The National Archaeological Museum
The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is touted as one of the finest museums in the world.
Straight in from the entryway are the treasures of Mycenea discovered by Heinrich Schliemann, a German Archaeologist. These include a death mask believed to belong to Agamemnon, the 1600 BC warrior.
Other rooms contain marble statues of Aphrodite, Eros and Pan; a bronze Marathon Boy dating from 340 BC and the Eleni Stathatou Jewellery Collection featuring pieces from the Bronze age to the Byzantine period.
If this sounds a bit overwhelming, like a place you could be lost in for days, take heart. There are several other museums that can occupy you for a few hours without totally boggling your mind.
The Byzantine Museum
The Byzantine Museum covers 1500 years of Byzantine art and architecture. The tour will give you a feel for the importance Greek society places on the Greek Orthodox Church.
The Museum is housed in a Florentine mansion built for the wife of one of Napoleon's generals. This socialite was well known in Athens and dedicated to preserving the Arts. In the 1930s, collector Georgios Sotiriou converted the mansion into a museum.
The entryway has been transformed into a monastic court featuring a copy of a 4th century fountain from Dafni. The monastic theme carries on with a display of icons, which are an important part of everyday Greek life.
Although saints feature highly on icons, the Panagia or Virgin Mary All Holy is the most popular subject. Most icons are painted on wood treated with gesso. Icon painters carefully conform to a detailed tradition that stretches back hundreds of years with barely any difference detected in the style from then until now.
Two stunning Icons featured in the museum are the Panagia nursing the Christ Child from the 18th century and the Episkepis from Bithynia, a 14th century mosiac icon.
The Benaki Museum
Founded in 1931 by Antonis Benaki, the Benaki Museum is housed in a Neoclassical mansion that was once the family home.
Inside are a wide variety of displays. There is ecclesiastical silverware, an unusual Icon depicting St Anne with the Virgin Mary as a child. An entire upper floor has been dedicated to the display of traditional Greek life and costumes.
There is also a famous portrait – El Faiyum – painted on linen from the 3rd century AD.
The Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments
For a total change of pace, give the Museum of Greek Popular Musical Instruments a try. Located in a quiet little courtyard between Monostiraki and the Acropolis, it is a museum as well as a study center.
The museum started when musicologist, Phoebus Anogianakis from Crete donated his collection of over 1,000 musical instruments to the Greek state in 1978.
A wide range of instruments are represented in this display. There is a goatskin bagpipe – a tsampouna: an ivory/tortoise shell lute displays exquisite craftsmanship from the 19th century: an intriguing selection of strange stringed instruments.
Be sure to listen to the recordings at each display. If you don’t find yourself dancing, you will at least leave with a smile on your face.
