”Μyrtis: Face to face with the past”
Lost for 2500 years, Myrtis reappears in a Temporary Exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens
September 13 – November 30, 2010
The Temporary Exhibition “Μyrtis: Face to face with the past” opened at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens on Monday, September 13, at 19:30. If you’ve seen the photo exhibit at the airport, then visiting Myrtis “live” and “in person” seems like the logical next step. NAM gives you the chance to come face to face with this 11 year old Athenian girl who was –along with Perikles- one of the tens of thousands victims of typhoid fever in the year 430 BC, the second year of the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta and their allies.
According to the museum’s curators:
We feel that the National Archaeological Museum, Athens is the ideal setting par excellence to display Myrtis. Her reception within the walls of our institution, where so many burial sculptures and funerary reliefs are held, recalls the ancient ritual practice of Dexiosis, whereby the right hand is extended in a gesture of farewell to the dead. The encounter of Myrtis with the youths and maidens on burial stelai at the Museum -Dikaios, Nikocharis, Aristille or Mnesagora- is metaphysical. Through the face of little Myrtis, sepulchral monuments and memorials of the 5th century BC, both eponymous or anonymous, come back to life and talk with us. They remind us of the common human fate, death, but also of its defeat by means of memory. It is no coincidence that Myrtis was declared “Friend of the Goals of the Millenium” by the United Nations Organization.
Opening hours: Monday: 13:30-20:00
Tuesday-Sunday: 08:00-20:00
The National Archaeological Museum is closed on 25 – 26 December, 1 January, 25 March, Orthodox Easter Sunday and 1 May.
Admission fee: 7 euros
Reduced fee: 3 euros for E.U. senior citizens (over 65 years old), students from countries outside the E.U.
Free entrance:
visitors under 19 years old,
students from E.U. countries,
admission card holders (Free Entrance Card, Culture Card, ICOM, ICOMOS)
journalists, guides, soldiers.
- Entrance is free to all visitors on the following days:
March 6 (Memory of Melina Mercouri)
April 18 (International Monument Day)
May 18 (International Museum Day)
June 5 (World Environment Day)
the last weekend of September (European Days of Cultural Heritage)
September 27 (International Tourism Day)
Sundays in the period between November 1 and March 31
Greek official holidays during which the Museum is open: January 6, Orthodox Good Friday (12:00 – 17:00), Orthodox Easter Saturday and Monday, Orthodox Monday of the Holy Spirit, August 15, October 28.
the first Sunday of April, May, June, September and October (in case this is an official holiday, it is the second Sunday of that month).
The National Archaeological Museum is closed on December 25 – 26, January 1, March 25, Orthodox Easter Sunday and May 1.
Entrance is free on the days celebrating Open Days and the European Spring of the Museums, ccording to the dates set each year.
Galleries begin closing 20 minutes before the museum closes. Essential work may necessitate closing galleries without previous notice.