The 'Statue of a Victorious Youth', thought to be possibly the only surviving original work from over 1500 bronzes produced by the classic Greek sculptor, Lysippos, was discovered by two Italian fisherman from the village of Fano. They snagged the barnacle-covered work with their fishing nets in the international waters of the Adriatic Sea in 1964 (click here to see an image of the bronze before it was restored). The 4th century BC statue was probably spirited away from Greece by an invading Roman general who attempted to ship the piece back to Rome. Conservators point out that the statue was apparently ripped from its base, breaking it at the ankles - not the actions of an entrepreneur looking towards future profit.
Ithaca, a small island in the Ionian Sea, had a troubled history, including periods of occupation by the Romans, the Ottomans and the French. It was first occupied during Neolithic times, but was at its height during the Myceneaan period (1500–1100 BC), when it was the capital of Cephalonia.
Its fame however comes from the central role it plays in Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey as Ulysses’ home and final aim of his travels.
However, the current landscape does not match Homer’s description. The Odyssey says it is “low-lying”, far West and surrounded by the islands of Doulichion and Same, whereas the island is mountainous and more Eastern than other Ionian Sea islands, and some historians doubt it really ever was Ulysses’ home.
The so-called ‘Rampin Horseman’ is a marble male head from a fragmentary statuary group dating to the Archaic Period found in the Acropolis of Athens. The group is thought to have been formed by a pair of horsemen. The fragments were discovered in a ditch containing statues made into pieces during the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC.
The identity of the ‘Rampin Horseman’ is uncertain: it could represent a hero, an Athenian aristocrat or, if he had won his crown of leaves during one of the Pan-Hellenic Games, a glorious athlete. Parts of the equestrian group are in the New Acropolis Museum of Athens, while the male head is the the Louvre Museum of Paris.
A Caryatid (‘maiden of Karyai’, an ancient town in Peloponnese) is an architectural element in form of female statue whose function is to support on its head an entablature (superstructure of mouldings and bands).
On the Acropolis of Athens, 6 marble Caryatids formed the southern porch of the Erechtheion, a temple dedicated to the legendary Greek hero Erechthonios. None of the Caryatids went destroyed or lost; today 5 of them are in the New Acropolis Museum of Athens and 1, which stood second from the left on the front of the porch, is in the British Museum of London.
A frieze ran all along the four side of temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis. It was 25.94 metres long and formed by 14 marble blocks. The frieze depicts on the eastern side an assembly of Olympian Gods and on the other three sides idealised scenes from historic battles, such as the Battle of Plataea (the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in 479 BC).
A whole block and parts of others were lost, so the reconstruction of some parts of the frieze is uncertain.
Four blocks, two from the southern side and two from the western, are in the British Museum of London.
In an ancient temple the frieze is the central band of a superstructure lying horizontally above columns and capitals. The Parthenon’s frieze, 160 metres long, rested above the perimetral wall of the temple’s cell. The marble frieze, sculpted in low relief, depicts the procession held during the Panathenaic festival.
The frieze of the Parthenon was formed by 115 panels. Of the 94 preserved 36 are in the New Acropolis Museum of Athens, 56 in the British Museum of London and 1 plus some fragments of others in the Louvre Museum of Paris. Further fragments of the frieze are also in the Vatican Museums of Rome, the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna and the Glyptothek of Munich.
The metopes are individual sculptures in high relief. The Parthenon was decorated by 92 metopes, 32 on each long side and 14 on each short. Each metope was separated from the next one by a small grooved slab called trygliph.
The metopes, placed above the external row of columns, represented several mythical battles: episodes of the Trojan War on the north side, the Struggle between Lapiths and Centaurs (half-men, half-horses) on the south, the Gigantomachy (fight between gods and giants) on the east and the Amazonomachy (battle between Greeks and Amazons) on the west.
Of the 64 metopes preserved 48 are in the New Acropolis Museum of Athens, 15 in the British Museum of London and 1 with fragments of others in the Louvre Museum of Paris. Further fragments of Metopes are also in the Vatican Museums of Rome and 1 (a head) is at the University of Würzburg.
Athens is the ancient and modern capital of Greece, and one of the world's oldest and most famous cities, with a recorded history that spans 3,400 years.
It was a powerful city-state at its peak in the classical period, which lasted roughly from the end of the Persian Wars around 450 BC until the Macedonian conquest of 338 BC. During that phase, Athens was a centre of learning, and philosophical thought generally considered to be the cradle of Western Civilization and democracy.
Schliemann's Troy Treasures comprise a varied selection of items dug up at the site of the ancient city of Troy by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 1870s. They were donated "to the German people" by Schliemann in 1881, and became among the most famous artefacts at the Neues Museum in Berlin, until it was destroyed during the Second World War.
The Trojan antiquities have now been restored to pride of place in the - as of October 2009 - newly re-opened Neues Museum in Berlin. There they occupy their own room, in the museum where Schliemann hoped they would stay "for their eternal preservation." Sadly though, the most famous artefacts among the collection - Priam's Treasure (items once belonging to the Homeric king Priam) - are only represented by copies. The originals were looted by the Russians after the Battle of Berlin in 1945. The Russians only admitted to having them in 1994. They have been on display at Moscow's Pushkin Museum since 1996.
Thermopylae is a location in modern Greece where, in antiquity, a narrow coastal passage existed. It is the only route of transit down the east coast of Greece from the Balkan peninsula, and therefore has been the site of many battles in ancient and modern history.
The most famous battle associated with the site is the Battle of Thermoyplae in 480 BC, when a small band of Spartans and other Greeks - led by King Leonidas I of Sparta - stood to the last in a rear guard action against Persian forces numbering as many as two million, led by Xerxes the Great during the second Persian invasion of Greece. The Spartans used the narrow terrain at the Hot Gates (named after an ancient hot spring) where the pathway measured as little as 100 metres, as a force multiplier, and managed to hold off the Persians for two days before they were all killed. Their heroic action has echoed through history (it was recently depicted in the film 300). A statue commemorating King Leonidas and the battle stands at the site today.
Other notable conflicts at Thermopylae in ancient history include: a battle between the Greeks and Macedonians in 353 BC/352 BC (Greek victory), a battle between the Greeks and Gauls in n 279 BC (Gallic victory) and a battle between the Romans and Syrians in 191 BC (Roman victory).
