Excerpt: Third Day in Athens (National Museum)
After a quick bus tour of the city, past the Corinthian temple of Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, and the stadium of the first modern Olympics, we arrived at the National Museum, Athens' largest collection of ancient art.
The rooms are arranged in chronological order, and contain a hit parade of art history students' "must know" artifacts.
The first room covers the Mycenaean period, remembered centuries later by the classical Greeks in myths, cults, and Homeric epic. The Mycenaean period for them was like the age of King Arthur for us, a time of great kings and legendary warriors like Achilles.
(Read on...)
Also in This Section:
Photo Galleries of Greek art (Mycenaean, archaic)
Recommended Links on phases of Greek art (art history)