Top sculptures to see in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens include bronzes and marble statues from the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods.
The National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece, is home to the world’s largest and most important collections of sculptures from Greek antiquity. The permanent exhibition of the Sculpture Collection uses around a thousand works to illustrate the evolution of ancient Greek sculpture from around 700 BC to the 5th century AD.
The permanent exhbition of the museum’s Sculpture Collection covers the following main artistic (and historic) periods:
- Archaic period (c. 800-480 BCE)
- Classical period (480-323 BCE)
- Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE)
- Roman period (31 BCE–AD 330)
Some of the museum’s 16,000 sculptures are on display in other parts of the museum. Time-slot reservation tickets are essential and give access to the complete museum. Although the museum is big, opening hours are fortunately long.
Prehistoric Collection
The oldest items in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens are in the Prehistoric Collection. Some items go back to the 7th millennium BCE. Although the exhibition includes some figurines, these are not part of the museum’s formal Sculpture Collection.
Among the oldest figurines are The Nurse, a clay woman sitting on a stool with an infant in her arms (4800-4500 BCE), and The Thinker, a large compact figure of a seated man (4500-3300 BCE)
Cycladic Antiquities
However, the more impressive figurines and even monumental sculptures were produced by the Cycladic Civilization (3200-1100 BC). The museum has many on display in Room 6 on the ground floor while the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens has an even larger and more diverse collection of these sculptures.
Personal favorites include two Parian marble figurines of musicians discovered in the same grave on Keros. The seated Harpist of Keros holds a stringed instrument (probably some kind of lyre or harp). The standing Flutist plays the double flute. Both are from the Early Cycladic Period, ca. 2800-2300 BCE.
→ See also Visit the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens for more on a beautifully presented private collection of figurines.
Archaic Period Sculptures in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens
The Archaic period (circa 800-480 BCE) marks the early development of Greek sculpture. It bridges the gap between the rigid stylization of earlier art, such as the Cycladic antiquities, and the more naturalistic styles that emerge later during the Classical period.
The female kore (plural korai) and male kouros (kouroi) were the main free-standing sculpture types of the Archaic era. They were introduced in the mid-7th century BCE and would define Greek art for over a century.
The exhibition includes outstanding examples of kouros and kore statues. These are among the most important sculptures in the museum.
→ See Top Archaic Sculptures in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens for a more detailed description.
A few notable further sculptures and reliefs in the archaic period rooms include:
Several marble reliefs from grave steles and bases in Athens from around 500 BCE depict mostly nude male youth in sporting activities. On one relief, a nude youth wearing a helmet runs in the hoplitodromos race in heavy armour. Even older is the marble grave stele of a young javelin-bearer from 550-540 BCE. It represents a young athlete holding a javelin. The background preserves traces of red color.
Classical Period Sculptures
The Classical period (480-323 BC) is represented in this Athens museum by renowned sculptures, reliefs, steles, and other funerary sculptures. Typical for this period is showing the human body in idealized beauty.
Large Bronze Zeus of Artemision
The large bronze Zeus of Artemision, created around 460–450 BCE, is the crowning glory of the classical period and one of the highlights in the museum and of Greek sculpture. This exceptionally rare large bronze sculpture escaped being melted down, the fate of so many other bronzes from antiquity, by being shipwrecked and only being recovered in the 1920s.
This large bronze, standing 2.09 meters (6 feet 9 inches) tall, shows a nude, powerful male with one arm extended forward and the other raised. He is about to hurl a thunderbolt, which would confirm him as Zeus, king of the Olympian gods, or a trident, which would make him Poseidon, the god of the sea.
→ For a more detailed description of the Artemision Zeus (or possibly Poseidon), see Large Bronze Sculptures from Greek Antiquity in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Large Bronze Sculptures of Ephebes
The Bronze Statue of Zeus of Artemision is from early in the classical period, around 460–450 BCE. The National Archaeological Museum in Athens has two further large bronze sculptures created in the Late Classical period (around 340-330 BCE):
The Marathon Youth, standing 1.30 meters (4 feet 3 inches) tall, depicts a young nude male (ephebe) with an idealized, athletic physique. The Marathon Boy statue lost its attributes but probably represents a victorious athlete. It may also be a god (such as Hermes or Apollo), or a hero.
The more muscular Antikythera Youth, standing approximately 1.94 meters (6 feet 4 inches) tall, depicts an ephebe with an athletic yet graceful physique. His well-proportioned body stands in a relaxed contrapposto stance. Unfortunately, the object he held in his outstretched right hand was lost. It was probably the apple of strife, making him Paris. Alternatively, he could also depict Perseus holding the head of Medusa, or Hermes with a missing staff.
→ For a more detailed description of these two bronze ephebes, see Large Bronze Sculptures from Greek Antiquity in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Reliefs and Funeral Monuments
Following the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, the ban on the erection of funerary monuments was lifted for victims of the war and the plague epidemic. These ranged from large, ostentatious vases to stelae with simple decorations. (Hundreds of painted vases are on display on the upper floor of the museum.)
The marble funerary lekythos of Myrrhine, found in Athens (420-410 BCE). The Olympian god Hermes Psychopompos (portrayed in the semi-nude as Escorter of Souls) leads the young Myrrhine to the Underworld. On the left are the dead woman’s relatives led by an old man, probably her father, who waves her farewell. Height 1,36 m (4’5″).
Big Eleusinian Relief
The Big Eleusinian Relief, found at Eleusis, Attica, ca. 440-430 BC, is the largest and most significant votive relief surviving from Greek antiquity. Dedicated to the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore at Eleusis, it represents the Eleusenian deities in a scene of mystic ritual. Demeter offers ears of wheat to the young hero Triptolemos to bestow food on mankind. Persephone blesses Triptolemos with her right hand. (A Roman copy is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.) Pentelic marble. Height 2,20 m., width 1,52 m (ca. 7’2″ by 5′).
Two marble grave stelae from Athens, ca. 340 BCE, follow a similar theme and were originally parts of a naikos (small temple) with a separate pediment, pilasters, and pedestal. A nude youth leans against a pillar with crossed legs while an older man, probably his father, looks at him in grief. At the bottom, the young slave of the deceased, exhausted by his grief, has fallen half asleep on the steps. The plasticity of the young man’s body was probably inspired by a free-standing statue of a hero.
Artistically, the more accomplished one includes a dog to characterize the youth as a hunter. This stele is by the Parian sculptor Skopas, or his workshop. Height 1,68 m. (5 ft 5 in), width 1,10 m. (3 ft 6 in).
Hellenistic Period Sculptures in the Athens Archaeological Museum
The Hellenistic period (323–31 BC) covers the period when Greek culture spread through the larger eastern Mediterranean area after the death of Alexander the Great until the absorption of Greece into the Roman Empire three centuries later. Sculptures became more realistic and more varied.
Several of the sculptures on display in the museum are marble copies produced in the Hellenic and Roman periods of earlier, often bronzes, from the classical period. The two outstanding sculptures from the Hellenistic Period are the bronze Artemision Jockey and the marble group of Aphrodite Fighting Off Pan.
Large Bronze Jockey of Artemision
The large bronze Jockey of Artemision is one of the highlights and most popular sculptures displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. It depicts a young boy riding a galloping horse, capturing a dynamic and dramatic moment frozen in time.
This exceptionally rare example of Hellenistic bronze artistry dates from around 140–130 BCE. Like the Artemision Zeus, it was re-discovered off Cape Artemision.
The horse is in mid-gallop, its muscles tensed and mouth open as if breathing heavily. The boy, significantly smaller in scale, sits bareback on the powerful horse. The statue stands 2.1 meters (6 feet 10 inches) tall.
→ See Large Bronze Sculptures from Greek Antiquity in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens for a more detailed description.
Marble Sculptures Group of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros
A particularly popular Hellenic Period sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens is the marble group of Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros, from Delos, Cyclades, ca. 100 BC. The nude goddess Aphrodite attempts to fend off the goat-footed god Pan, who makes erotic advances to her. She holds her sandal threateningly in her right hand, while the winged god Eros comes to her aid.
Aphrodite, Pan, and Eros is a free-standing sculpture group that could be admired from any angle. Height with the base 1,55 m (5 ft).
Hellenic Marble Sculptures in the Athens Museum
The marble statue of Poseidon, from Melos, Cyclades, 125-100 BC, is larger than life-size at a height of 2,35 m (7 ft 9 in). This is taller than the bronze Artemision Zeus. Poseidon is almost nude, wearing a himation covering the lower part of the body. A dolphin supports his weight. In his raised right hand, he would have held the trident.
Far smaller, cuter, and more human is the marble statuette of a Boy with a Dog from Gerontikon, in Nyssa, Asia Minor, 1st c. BCE. The young child, known as the little refugee, wears a hood tied beneath the neck and holds a little dog tightly in its arms. Height 0,63 m (2 ft).
The Parian marble statue of a Fighting Gaul, found on Delos, Cyclades, is a typical Late Hellenic sculpture from around 100 BCE, probably by Agasias. The warrior, wounded in the thigh, has fallen to the ground on his right knee but still attempts to defend himself with his left arm. On the ground, next to him, rests a Galatian helmet. It is probably related to the Dying Gaul in the Capitoline Museum, Gaul Killing Himself and his Wife in Palazzo Altemps in Rome, and the Wounded Gaul in the Louvre. (In all cases, Gaul refers to the Gaulish / Galatian people from Anatolia, present-day Turkey, rather than the Gauls of France.) Height 0,93 m (3 ft).
Marble Sculptures
Many of the marble sculptures on display in the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens are later copies, often Roman, of earlier bronze sculptures from the Classical and later Hellenic periods.
Athena of Varvakeion
The Athena of Varvakeion is a smaller Roman marble copy of the chryselephantine Athena Parthenos by Pheidias in the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. This 1.05-m tall statuette is the truest likeness of the original, which was twelve times larger. Athena wears the Attic peplos, her aegis adorned with the head of the Gorgoneion Medusa, and on her head the Attic helmet. Her left hand rests on a shield with Erichtonios, coiled as a sacred snake. The Nike in the right hand of the original was larger than this complete Athena.
The marble statue of an athlete binding his hair (diadoumenos), found on Delos, Cyclades. It is a marble copy from about 100 BC of an original bronze by Polykleitos from 450-425 BC. The naked male youth is binding a ribbon in his hair, suggesting he was the victor of some athletic competition. (The copyist added the tree trunk for support, as the marble could not remain upright and intact without it.) At 1.95m (6’5″), it is about the size of the Antikythera Youth and only marginally smaller than the monumental Zeus of Artemision.
Two Roman copies made in the 2nd century AD of 4th-century BCE Greek originals are:
The Pentelic marble Atalante Hermes with Lysippean characteristics. The funerary statue of a youthful Hermes shows the god in the nude with his chlamys over his shoulder and wound around his left arm. It was found at Atalante, Phthiotis.
A Parian marble Statue of Aphrodite found at Baiai in southern Italy. Aphrodite is depicted standing, nude save for a richly draped himation which she retains with her left hand in front of her pudenda. Antonio Canova (1757-1822) restored the neck, head, and right arm.
Hercules in the Garden
Near the Athena sculpture is an exit door to the outdoor cafe. On display here is an oversized figure of Hercules Leaning on his Club (after a much older original by Lysippos. This Parian marble sculpture was discovered in the shipwreck of Antikythera and shows the difference in preservation with the bronzes recovered from the sea.
Roman Period Sculptures in the Athens Museum
During the Roman period (31 BC–AD 330), many sculptures and art treasures were removed from Greece, while copies of Greek sculptures were produced in relatively high numbers. Far more of these copies survived than from the Greek originals. Although new works were produced too in Greece, these were frequently less accomplished than the classic free-standing statues. Busts, portraits, sarcophagi and related funeral sculptures, reliefs, and applied arts such as trapezophora (marble table supports) were more common.
Marble Busts and Portrait Sculptures
The large number of marble busts and portraits on display confirms that the Greeks loved these as much as the Romans. The Roman imperial family is well represented but also Greek philosophers and writers, military heroes, civic leaders, and the occasional common man.
Several portraits of the philhellene emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138) are on display, including a colossal portrait head found in Athens. Hadrian loved Athens. Several of the archaeological sites near the Acropolis were erected and named after him.
Hadrian loved everything Greek and especially the Greek teenager Antinous (c. AD111 to 130). Hadrian had him deified after he drowned in the Nile. The museum has a particularly good Thasian marble portrait bust of Antinoos, from Patras, Peloponnese, AD 130-138.
Polydeukion and Herodes Atticus
Another fine marble portrait bust of a teenager is of Polydeukion, found in Kiphisia, Attica. c. AD 150. It was discovered together with the bust of Herodes Atticus, a wealthy Athenian sophist and the benefactor of Athens and other cities.
Polydeukion was Herodes Atticus’ pupil and favourite. He was heroised by his master after he died in his teens. This is particularly clear from the marble votive relief in the form of a naiskos, found in Arkadia, Peloponnese. c. AD 150-160. Polydeukion’s nudity, the horse, and the snake that he is feeding characterise him as a hero. A young slave holds out his helmet.
Sarcophagi and Ossuaries
A remarkable marble ossuary in the form of a sarcophagus is decorated on all four sides. It was found in Lykia, around AD 150-200. One of the long sides has a depiction of the dead married couple, while in the centre, Aphrodite writes their names on a shield supported by an Erotideus. At the right is Bellerophon and his winged horse, Pegasus. At the left end of the other long side is a depiction of the seizure of the Palladion by Diomedes and Odysseus, and at the right Aphrodite and a hero flank a trophy. A Centaur wrestles with a bearded man on one narrow side, and a Satyr with the goat-footed god Pan supports the drunken Herakles on the other.
An impressive Pentelic marble sarcophagus, found at Ayios Ioannis, Patras, Peloponnese, AD 150-170, has a saddle lid. The main scene is the hunt for the Calydonian boar, in which Meleager and Atalanta took part. Length 2,10 m. (6’10”), width 0,96 m. (3’2″), height with the lid 1,50 m (4’11”).
Statue of a Sleeping Maenad
The Pentelic marble statue of a Sleeping Maenad is from Athens around the time of the emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138). It was found to the south of the Athenian Acropolis and presumably adorned a luxury residence. The Maenad is asleep, lying on a panther skin spread on a rocky surface. The type is known as the reclining Hermaphrodite but in this sculpture without male genitalia.
Trapezophora with Sculptures
Marble table support with a Dionysiac motif, around AD 170-180, was the single support for a tabletop. The nude Dionysos holds a rhyton (ritual vase). Next to him, the goat-footed god Pan holds a lagobolon (stick to throw at hares). In front of them is a small cylindrical basket from which a snake is emerging. A young Satyr climbs up the vine and cuts grapes with the sickle in his right hand. From the branch hangs a lagobolon, Pan’s syrinx (pipes), and a goatskin. Height 1.275 m (4’2″).
Bronze Sculptures from the Roman Period in the Athens Museum
As with the classical and Hellenistic periods, the Roman era also produced some excellent large bronze sculptures.
The large bronze Equestrian Statue of Octavian Augustus, from around 12-10 BCE, was recovered from the Aegean Sea. It depicts Emperor Augustus (29 BC to AD 14) in mature age, mounting a horse (which was lost).
→ See Large Bronze Sculptures from Greek Antiquity in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens for a more detailed description.
Artistically less accomplished and in poor condition but with an interesting story is the bronze portrait statue of the empress Julia Aquilia Severa, from Sparta, Lakonia. AD 221-222.
The extensive damage was attributed to damnatio memoriae (posthumous condemnation involving the destruction of images and the erasing of the name of the condemned person from public monuments), which had led to the identification of the figure depicted with one of the leading female figures of the Severan dynasty who suffered this fate –Julia Mamaea, mother and co-empress of the emperor Alexander Severus, Plautilla, wife of the emperor Caracalla, or Annia Faustina, third wife of Heliogabalus.
However, it depicts Julia Aquilia, the second and then the fourth and last wife of the emperor Heliogabalus (AD 218-222). There is no evidence that Julia Aquilia Severa suffered damnatio memoriae. The poor condition of the statue is the result of the collapse of the building in which it was erected, caused by a fire, as is clear from the excavation record. Height 1,84 m (6′).
→ See Tickets and Tips for Visiting the National Archaeological Museum of Greece in Athens for more practical information on this very impressive museum.
More on Visiting Athens
- Acropolis & Parthenon:
- Acropolis Museum
- National Archaeological Museum of Athens:
- Ancient Agora — Archaeological Site and Museum
- 5-Day Combination Tickets — Worth it?
- Visit the Museum of Cycladic Art
- Cheap Public Transportation to Athens Airport — Bus X95 is cheapest, Metro M3 is fastest.
- Odysseus — the official website of the Ministry of Culture and Sports has better information than the very old-fashioned design.
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