The ancient Greeks were known for their artistry and craftsmanship, and the many museums of Athens contain a wealth of treasures from Greek history. We visited the National Archeological Museum, the Benaki Museum, the Museum in the Stoa of Attalos, and the Byzantine Museum. (It was odd, but the Greeks didn't mind at all if you took photos without flash of any of the art.)

The earliest of the ancient Greek civilizations was that of the Minoans, which flourished mainly on the island of Crete from about 2700 B.C. to about 1450 B.C.--in other words, over 4000 years ago. We don't know a lot about the Minoans (we don't even know what they called themselves; Minoans is a modern invented name for them), but they left sophisticated architecture decorated with beautiful wall frescoes, like these examples below.

The next ancient Greek civilization was that of the Mycenaeans, who flourished on the Peloponnesian peninsula from about 1600 B.C. to about 1100 B.C. The Mycenaeans are named after one of the towns they inhabited (Mycenae, which we visited in this trip, so more about them later). A variety of artifacts survive from their civilization, including the pot, showing a man riding a chariot, and a funeral mask made of gold that covered the body of a distinguished individual (and is called the Mask of Agamemnon).

The Mycenaean civilization was destroyed when a new ethnic group migrated into Greece from the north and conquered them. This people, called the Dorians, became the ancestors of the Greeks of the classical era, including the ancient Athenians. By the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. this people was beginning to create their own works of art. Common in the earliest periods were large human sculptures. The male figures are always naked and the female figures (the last in the series below) are always clothed.

These Greeks became increasingly sophisticated in the art they produced, and used it when traveling around the Mediterranean to trade for food and metals and other goods. They increasingly produced more portable art, especially painted and decorated vases, at which they became extremely adept.

The vase on the left shows the Greek god of male fertility named Priapos, and the vase on the right shows men at a banquet. So the Greeks painted scenes from their history and mythology as well as scenes of everyday life on their vases. Below is a wedding banquet scene (the groom reclines, as all men did when dining, but the bride sits in a chair beside him).

By the fifth century B.C. the Greeks had learned new techniques for firing these pots and so produced orange and white figures instead of black ones. They also produced a wider range of different types of vases, each intended for a different purpose.

Sculpture in the Hellenistic period (323-146 B.C.) was equally precise in its realism, but much more expressive of human emotion. This sculpture (below) shows an encounter between the goddess Aphrodite and the half-man, half-goat named Pan, with Eros (Cupid) trying to bring the two together.

Not surprisingly, Hellenistic artists were intrigued by the many Greek legends of half-human, half-animal beings, like Pan (shown with Aphrodite above) and the Minotaur (below), a half-man, half-bull creature believed to have inhabited the island of Crete.

This device below, called the Antikythera Mechanism, is what remains of a Hellenistic-era astronomical calculator. By turning the various wheels and cogs you could determine the position of the sun, moon, and planets in conjunction with each other. It was built in the second century B.C.

From Hellenistic art, the Romans borrowed the depiction of human emotions and of animals.
Below left, a young man recently deceased says goodbye to his parents in a funerary sculpture. Below right, a young boy rides a horse--probably a jockey in a horse race.