The National Museum is located in Athens, and our visit there was, to me, astonishing.  As an American, I look at our country's 200 year old history and realize what young upstarts we must be.  Within the walls of this gorgeous museum, I saw works that were thousands of years old.  And what struck me most was that the oldest sculptures, the Cycladic figurines, are as fresh and innovative as the most modern works of art today.

Cycladic Female Figure

Mycenaean Gold Mask

16th century BC fresco of flying fish

Mycenaean Gold Diadem

Cycladic Male Lute Player

Linear B Tablet

Fresco of two women in chariot

Funeral Vase (detail)

Monumental Kouos (with admirer)

Kouros and little friends

Bronze Poseidon

Bronze Horse and Rider

Bronze Apollo with riveting eyes

Bronze Horse and Rider (detail)

John and friend

Head of Hygeia

Portrait of Old Man in bronze

Portrait Heads

Portrait of Empress Livia

Alexander the Great

Aphrodite prepares to slap a satyr with her shoe

Reclining Aphrodite, the only goddess portrayed in the nude