So the long-awaited Acropolis Museum is set to reopen today, June 20. It looks like quite an extraordinary structure. According to the BBC report, the culture minister Antonis Samaras hopes to convince the British Museum that there is now an appropriate and well-suited location to house Athenian artifacts sold(?) to London in the early nineteenth century. This includes a 75-meter section of frieze, which as a whole stretched 160 meters in length around the inner section of the Parthenon. The frieze is now on display with the missing section replaced by a plaster cast.
The new website for the Acropolis Museum is nicely put together and offers a glimpse of what one should expect to find on their visit. I still have not visited Athens, or any part of Greece for that matter, so this just whets my appetite to visit the sacred patris even more. That’s right, despite having degrees in Classics (with an emphasis on Greek civilization) and biblical studies, I still haven’t been to Greece. But I’m hoping to soon. Anyone want to take me?
I second Brandon’s call for a trip to Greece. Some world famous scholar at a wealthy institution must have a need for two young scholars willing to do … well whatever is needed!