Today was purposely scheduled to be a light day because Joe needed to keep an eye on the post election market. It actually ended up working well, as I was tired from yesterday’s excursion up to the mountains.
We made the short trek to Antalya Museum, which contains most of the finds from excavations around this region, as well as a few from Lycia. There are the usual potteries and coins, but the highlight of the museum is their sculpture collection from Perge. Remember Perge has been extensively excavated since 1946, so it’s expected to yield a great deal of antiquities.
The vast numbers of Greek and Roman sculptures found in Perge suggest great wealth that existed in the city back in the days.Roman Emperor HadrianusMy favorite hall was the hall of gods and goddesses
The Big 3s that I had wanted to see were Zeus, Artemis, and Apollo, as those were the 3 stationed at the fountain at the north end of the Main Street.
Zeus – a real philanderer as he cheated on Hera with other goddesses and even mortals. One goddess, Nemesis, even went as far as turning herself into a goose to escape Zeus, but Zeus turned himself into a swan to make love to her. This led the goose to lay an egg, which was given by a Shepard to Leda. The egg ended up producing Polydeuces and Helen (of Troy). In today’s technical terminology, these two would be called swoose – hybrid of goose and swan.Artemis – the goddess of nature and wildlife.Apollo – Artemis’ twin.
The theater section includes sculptures found within the Perge theater. These statues are much larger in size.
HermèsHercules – how does he have anything to do with the Milky Way? Apparently when he was suckling on Hera’s nipples (long story short – he was not Hera’s son, but Hera was convinced by Athena to take him in), he bit so hard that Hera pushed him away and spilled the milk across the night sky, and thus forming the Milky Way.Alexander the Great – Greatest conqueror but failed to take Termessos.
The sarcophagi we’d seen at sites have been rather plain and simple. The ones in the museum are on a completely different level.
Imagine being buried in one of these beauties This sarcophagus was smuggled abroad and given back to Turkey by the Brooklyn Museum in 1996And this one was intercepted in Switzerland In comparison, the Lycian stele is rather elementary Talk about elementary
To appreciate these sculptures, I strongly recommend visiting Perge first before visiting the museum. It helps to put everything in perspective.
FIRE'd @ 47 
The collections look amazing. Would love to spend some time there.
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It truly is amazing when you think how all these marble carvings date back to the 2nd century AD.
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