Queen of all, charming and lovely blooming,
Blessed Hygieia, mother of all, bringer of prosperity, hear me.
Through you vanish the diseases that afflict men,
And through you every house blossoms to fullness of joy,
And the arts thrive; the world desires you, O queen,
And only soul-destroying Hades ever loathes you.
Ever youthful, ever beloved, you are a heaven for mortals.
Apart from you all is without avail for men:
Wealth, sweet to those feast, and giver of abundance, fails,
And man never reaches the many pains of old age,
For you are sole mistress and queen of all.
But, goddess, come, ever helpful to the initiates,
And keep away the accursed distress of harsh disease.
(Orphic hymn to Hygieia-Health)
The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, an archaeological museum at its core, with a focus on contemporary aspects of art that empower links between the past and the present, offers to the community a new series of online activities at cycladic.gr, starting with the emblematic exhibition “HYGEIA – Health, Illness, Treatment From Homer to Galen”.
The exhibition, that took place in 2014, covered the evolution of ancient medicine and healing practices while examining the transition from religious healing to scientific medicine. You can now visit online the world of Medicine in Ancient Greece and discover practices and customs that are still applied today, through the Museum’s rich material:
https://cycladic.gr/en/page/imnos-stin-igiia
Furthermore, while visiting cycladic.gr, you have the opportunity to enjoy an online tour of the exhibition “Cycladic Society. 5000 years ago”, organized by the Museum of Cycladic Art in 2016, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary and curated by the Museum’s Director, Professor Nikolaos Stampolidis. Since no written sources of the Early Cycladic period survive, the exhibition attempts to “read” in a simple and straightforward manner the social structure, activities, living environment, and, where possible, convictions and beliefs of the Cycladic islanders in the Early Bronze Age (3,200-2,000 BC) through their creations.
At https://cycladic.gr/en/page/kikladiki-kinonia-5000-chronia-prin, the visitor can take a tour of the community of the Cycladic islands and explore the way they were developed 5000 years ago, through texts, photographs, maps, excerpts from the exhibition catalog as well as through a 4-minute film-poem written and narrated by Professor Nikolaos Stampolidis: Τhis video depicts representative samples of the Cycladic civilization, providing visitors with a condensed view of Cycladic Society’s life and possibly its creation 5,000 years ago.
In the meanwhile, online activities of the Museum are constantly enriched, in order to enable visitors to:
1.learn more about the Cycladic, Ancient Greece and Cypriot Cultures
https://cycladic.gr/en/page/archaeology-courses
2. study online the catalogs of the exhibitions “Ai Weiwei at Cycladic” and “George Condo at Cycladic” through the free access to the editions of its major exhibitions
https://cycladic.gr/en/page/online-exhibitions-catalogues
3. read stories about the Cycladic civilization with texts, images and objects from the Museum’s digital collection at Google Art Project
https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/museum-of-cycladic-art
4. take a peek at a number of ancient Greek games you can keep your little ones busy at home. Visit our online programme “Playing at Home” at:
https://cycladic.gr/en/page/paizontas-sto-spiti
5. learn about the former major exhibitions held by the Museum of Cycladic Art by checking our videos at:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MuseumOfCycladicArt
The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens
The Museum of Cycladic Art is a living, most appealing destination in the heart of Athens. It focuses on promoting the ancient cultures of the Aegean and Cyprus, with particular emphasis on Cycladic art of the third millennium BC.
Built in 1986 to house the Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris Collection, it holds one of the most comprehensive private collections of Cycladic art in the world. The minimalist marble figurines it is reknown for, has inspired artists of the 20th century, such as Brancusi, Modigliani, Giacometti, Hepworth and Moore and continue to inspire world-renowned artists such as Ai WeiWei.
The Museum’s permanent collections include 3000 Cycladic, ancient Greek, and ancient Cypriot artefacts, witnesses to the cultures that flourished in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean from the fourth millennium BC to approximately the sixth century AD.
The temporary exhibitions of the MCA focus on archaeology, modern and contemporary art, aiming to introduce the public not only to antiquity but also to important 20th & 21th century artists and explore the links between ancient cultures and modern and contemporary artistic creation. Dali, Picasso, Thomas Struth, Louise Bourgeois, Sarah Lucas, Ugo Rondinone, Jannis Kounellis, Αi Weiwei, Cy Twombly, George Condo have been exhibited at the MCA, amongst others.
@cycladic_museum | cycladic.gr
