10 March 2010 (Wednesday #5) – Delphi day

At the Delphi Archaeological Museum

After trekking up the Sacred Way to the Temple of Apollo (and even higher for one of us), Conrad and I ended our visit to the ruins of Ancient Delphi by visiting the Delphi Archaeological Museum. Here’s what it looks like on a non-rainy day:

Since today was a rainy day, I obviously did not take this photo, but had to borrow it from the Internet. The museum has 15 rooms that are generally arranged chronologically, with some themed exhibits included. Our photos are not in any order. 

There is one major difference between the statues in a museum in Greece and in, say, Italy. The Greek statues are more likely to wear clothes. I like that when I’m standing with one of my kids, staring at a statue. 

Below are some examples of Ancient Clothed People:

Interesting that sometimes their clothes survived for centuries, while the statues were buried underground, but their heads did not fare so well.

I didn’t bother to remember what the above statues are. I was still pouting about my one glove that went missing and the fact that both gloves were ugly.

Sometimes even the statue’s body didn’t survive:

I’m guessing they want us to think they found two feet, hence the lump on the left. It’s a good thing I’m not an archeologist, because if I were and if I dug up that lump, I would have identified it as a lump and pitched it.

Here we have the marble Sphinx of Naxos (circa 560 BC), sitting on an Ionic (gasp!) column:

It’s huge; it’s over 30 feet in height!

Fragments of a burnt chryselephantine statue, that some think depicts Apollo:

Chryselephantine is the technical term given to a type of cult statue that enjoyed high status in Ancient Greece. Such statues had a wooden frame with ivory for the skin and sheets of gold leaf representing the garments, hair, and other details.

A cylix (circa 470 BC) showing Apollo with a crown on his head, playing his lyre, offering a libation, and looking like a sissy girl.

A cylix is a shallow bowl with two horizontal handles projecting from the sides. It is often set upon a stem terminating in a foot, and it’s used as a drinking cup. Such an odd drinking cup.

Drawing of what the Treasury of the Athenians might have looked like:

Metopes (square spaces in a Doric frieze) from near the top of the Treasury of the Athenians:

A horse missing its legs with a rider missing everything but his legs:

The guy was riding side-saddle? 

Bronze incense burner:

The Bronze Athletes (circa 450 BC):

Here's another, even more famous, pair of guys; they're the Kouros Statues (circa 580 BC):

These guys are known as Kleovis and Biton (or Viton), which makes me think of Beavis and Butthead. Excuse me. Supposedly, the two boys heroically pulled their mother on her chariot to the sanctuary (a distance of about 5 miles) where she was to worship. Then that same night they died peacefully in their sleep, according to Herodotus, a Greek historian. The statues are tall, each being over 20 feet in height.

I sort of took this photo of Beavis, I mean, Kleovis and Biton from the Internet, because mine didn't work. Also, I seem to have doctored it (and some other photos here), because this is (usually) a family-friendly blog. (Do you think their friends called them Beavis and Butthead? Such thoughts take my mind off my gloves.)

The Three Dancers on an Acanthus Column (in a back-to-back triangle):

This statue of three young dancing women is a column carved from high-grade marble. Acanthus leaves are on the bottom, hence the name of the statue. This was an Athenian offering to the Athenian sanctuary in the 4th century BC. Originally it had a tripod on the top, that was supported by the women’s heads, and on the tripod rested a bronze cauldron.

To the right of the dancing girls is our happy tour guide for the day. As I said earlier, all our tour guides spoke several languages. They also all heavily emphasized the final consonant of every English word.

Top half (so I don’t have to get out the fig leaves again) of the statue of Hagias, an athlete:

This is a marble copy of a bronze statue made in 340 BC.

Statues in front of a blown-up photo from the archeological excavations in Delphi:

Archaeological research in Delphi began in 1860 by Germans. In 1891, the Greek government granted the French School at Athens permission for long-term excavations on the site. The French School and the Greeks are still doing the excavations.

Here’s the omphalos (center or navel) of the earth:

This sacred object was located in the Temple of Apollo. It was viewed only by the priests and priestess who had access to the Adyton chamber of the temple

I’m confused, because I thought the thing we saw on the ground midway up the Sacred Way was THE omphalos. Perhaps the earth has two navels? The parts of this one don’t seem to fit together very well.

[pause for research . . .] I just read that the omphalos in the museum is a Hellenistic or Roman copy of the stone that was believed to have marked the place above which Zeus’ eagles met. Who knew people made copies of navels?

This column stump thing (circa 2nd century BC) is the remains of a low relief altar from the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia:

The priestesses were hanging up offerings brought by the people.

Top half of a cult statue of Antinous (a.k.a. Antinoos, Antinoüs):

A cult statue is an image of a divinity that served in antiquity as a focal point for worship and cult rituals. They were usually housed in temples or shrines.

To tell you the truth, Antinous was not a divinity. Instead, he was, uh, the beloved companion (much beloved!) of the Emperor Hadrian. In 130 AD according to Hadrian, “Antinous was drowned in the Nilus.” The Nilus was the Nile River in Egypt. It is not known whether his death were the result of accident, suicide, murder, or religious sacrifice. Nevertheless, the grieving emperor decreed Antinous’ deification (i.e., proclaimed him a god). Cities were founded in his name, medals struck with his effigy, statues erected to him, and temples built for his worship in all parts of the empire.

Here’s a photo from the museum showing the unearthing of the above statue of Antinous in 1893: 

Taa-Daa! This is possibly the most celebrated artwork in the Delphi Museum. It’s the Charioteer of Delphi (also known as Heniokhos, the rein-holder):

By the way, the woman on the stool in the background to the left is a museum security person. The museum has lots of such people in regular, everyday clothes sitting and standing around . . . staring. All the museums we visited in Greece let us take photos except one. Since we couldn’t use flash inside the museums, most of the photos I took in the museums look yellow. Or maybe it’s my cataracts.

Anyway, this bronze statue originally belonged to a larger group, which represented a chariot with four horses (or maybe six) from which only small fragments survived. It was made from six separate cast parts. The statue was dedicated to Apollo by Polyzalos, the tyrant of Gela, in 478 BC, after he (Polyzalos) won the chariot-race at the Pythian Games. 

Conrad and I got a lot of laughs from this statue. First, we admired the imagination of the archeologists who unearthed it. Here is a diagram of the charioteer with the only other parts of the statue (besides the charioteer) that were found:

From these few parts, how did they determine how the rest of the statue looked? I would have tossed some of those parts had I been an archeologist.

The other funny part about this statue is that it’s from the Severe Period. The sculpture depicts the driver of the chariot race at the moment when he presents his chariot and horses to the spectators in recognition of his victory. Despite the joyfulness of the moment, the youth's demeanor looks downright sour. That’s because the sculpture was done in the Severe Period, when everyone was made to look, well, severe. Conrad and I liked that a lot. (We have the same sense of humor; our tour guide did not.)

Since the charioteer looks so harsh, how did the archeologists know he was the victor of the race? By the holes in his head. (Well, no wonder he had a severe look. You’d look severe, too, if someone drilled holes in your head.) The holes were used by the sculptor to attach a laurel wreath on his head, the laurel wreath being the sign of victory. (In real life I think they just set the laurel wreath on the victor’s head without drilling any holes.)

Finally, here are some scale models showing what the Temple of Apollo at the top of the Sacred Way looked like:

The amphitheater is visible in the top left in both photos, behind the Temple. I’m visible above the whole thing here: