The Acropolis Museum Changes Everything

We went to the Acropolis Museum yesterday and learned that we’ve been deceived about ancient Greek design our whole lives…but first things first.  On the walk there, Rob and I stopped into the National Library. A beautiful building, even prettier on the inside. The librarian greeted us and showed us a book from the 16th century, and warned us about immigrants.

Onward! We used another one of our Acropolis passes to stop in at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. So huge and quite dramatic with the stormy skies.

A quick hop over to the Acropolis Museum as it started to drizzle. Our Greek hosts were very proud of this new museum, opened in 2009, and justifiably so. It’s very elegantly done.

Rob and I stopped first for lunch in the posh cafe. He had a good stew of fava beans, sausage and fennel. I will never get tired of cheese pie.

Alright, we were fueled up and ready to see some beautiful marble carvings. So far, so good…

Yep, these adorable horses are what we expect…

Wait, what is happening with this statue?

And this one!?

It turns out that most of the Acropolis and its statues were painted with colored wax at the time. Instead of the pristine white marble landscape I imagined, the temple was “colored in” with yellow, blue, red and green. A look that seems much more similar to Chinese religious art to me. I had no idea! Mind officially blown.

The museum also has a good video on the transitions the Parthenon went through in history. It was converted to both a Christian church and a mosque at different points before unwisely being used to store ammunitions and exploded.  At the gift shop, I bought this replica of an ancient clay rattle with a red bow for Easter.