National Museum of Archaeology II

This section will contain pictures of some of the umpteen grave steles and statues they have on display. The ancient Greeks were big, very big, on graves and the afterlife and the museum contained several rooms full of stuff related to it. I won't even hazard a guess as to how much loot they have in storage.

A funeral statue of a young woman. She is holding a flower and the inscription at the bottom says "My complaint is that I died before my wedding".


Upon closer inspection the flower looks very much like a small butt plug.


A funeral statue for a young man. The inscription reads "My complaint is that the God of War took me with him". Notice how many of the statues have one leg in front of the other. That's a trick to let them balance on a relatively small space of ground, and another thing the Greeks learned from the Egyptians.


An older Greek vase illustrating a funeral. Notice how the stick people are actually depicted tearing their hear in grief, a Greek custom to this very day. As with so many cultures, they had a tradition of a wake, the purpose of which was to ensure that the dead was actually dead and not waking up to announce that he's feeling better.


The Archaic period was a relatively peaceful time for the Greek world, hence all their statues - even the Sphinx - are smiling. At least that's what I was told.


One of the more moving steles was this one, of a woman sitting in mourning - or perhaps contemplation - while her young child is reaching out for her. The grave belonged to a woman; maybe it was a young mother, maybe she died in childbirth.