Good day everyone, I’m Elena and thanks to be here on Alessandro III di Macedonia- website about Alexander the Great and Hellenism! Today I’ve to tell you something beautiful! Two days ago started a new exhibition and how much I dream of being able to see it!
Chaeronea, 2 August 338 BC: A day that changed the world
Stathatos Mansion | Museum of Cycladic Art
Vasilissis Sofias & Irodotou 1, Athens
from December 14, 2023 until March 31,2024
I report the information taken from the site in black writing and my impressions and thoughts in blue writing.
Curators & Concept
Panagiotis P. Iossif
Ioannis D. Fappas
THE EXHIBITION explores one of the most important historical events of Greek antiquity – the battle of Chaeronea that brought Alexander the Great onto the political stage and laid the foundations for the creation of the modern world.
Τhe new exhibition ‘Chaeronea, 2 August, 338 BC: A day that changed the world’ organized by the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, in collaboration with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, is part of the new series of archaeological exhibitions ‘Human Histories’ and is presented at the Stathatos Mansion and the Neophytou Douka Wing, under the supervision of the Scientific Directors of the Museum Dr. Panagiotis Iossif, Professor at the Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands, and Dr. Ioannis Fappas, Assistant Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Photo Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
OVERVIEW
The exhibition highlights the importance the Battle of Chaeronea had in ancient times, at the transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. The latter became an era in which Greek civilization was dominant for centuries and laid the foundations of what we call the Western world. The theme is the battle that opposed the Macedonian army of Philip II against that of the allied Greek cities of southern Greece – and in particular the Sacred Band of Thebes and the army of Athens – a conflict that for the first time brought the eighteen-year-old Alexander to the front line of history: Alexander who was soon to conquer the world with his great campaigns in Asia.
In addition to introducing the two worlds that collided, the exhibition presents the burial practices of the two armies: the Polyandrion (mass grave) of the 254 Theban members of the Sacred Band with their guardian monument of the Lion of Chaeronea, and the Tumulus of the Macedonians. Special emphasis is placed on the archaeological recovery of the aftermath of battle, highlighting the work of two pioneers of Greek archaeology at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, namely Panagiotis Stamatakis and Georgios Sotiriadis.
Photo Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
The exhibition ‘Chaeronea, 2 August, 338 BC: A day that changed the world’ is the first of a new series of exhibitions of the Museum of Cycladic Art with the title ‘Human Histories. Stories, that is, about the life, manners and works of mortals, which influenced the life, perceptions and thinking of later generations. This exhibition is going to tell such a story, based on the testimonies of the ancient sources, and the remains left by its protagonists.
Finally, as part of the exhibition, there will be organized guided tours for the public, while the Department of Education and Social Programs of the Museum will offer educational tours for Secondary Education students as well as guided tours in sign language.
Photo Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
EXHIBITION GUIDE
The starting point of the exhibition is the battle itself, that particular day in August 338 BC, when close to the Boeotian city of Chaeronea the Macedonians under the leadership of Philip II faced the numerically superior allied forces of the Greek cities, under the leadership of Thebes and the political inspiration of the Athenian politician Demosthenes.
Photo Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
Philip puts into the hands of the young Alexander the leadership of the cavalry, the body that will face the Theban Sacred Band and eliminate it. The consequences of the battle had an impact on the history of the world: after this battle, the army of Philip and, above all, of Alexander will reach the borders of the known world and bring outstanding wealth to the Greek area from the treasuries of the Persian kings. The Hellenistic period saw the disruption of the traditional political balances of the Greek cities and the redefinition of social structures. City-states are absorbed into a new administrative structure, that of the kingdom, where decisions are no longer made exclusively at the city level. It is a form of administration that closely resembles the member states of the European Union today. This was the period when a ‘new man’ came to be, one who – as described by Homer – ‘knew many states, learned the councils of many people’.
Photo Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
HIGHLIGHTED EXHIBITS
Much of the archaeological evidence in the exhibition is presented for the first time. These are objects from the excavations of the Polyandrion of the Thebans and the Tumulus of the Macedonians. Objects that are either not fully published and known to the academic community, or are held in museums in the wider Greek region. Further, many of the exhibits were comprehensively studied for the needs of this exhibition and are being published for the first time, having been held in storerooms of either the local Museum of Chaeronea or the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Among the artefacts of the exhibition there stand out the unique burial assemblage of the warrior from Igoumenitsa with its unique iron cuirass and silver-plated helmet, the Macedonian shield of exceptional aesthetic and historical importance with the inscription reading “of King Alexander” – an illicit antiquity from an illegal excavation, the golden staters of Philip, Alexander and his Successors, the bones of the members of the Sacred Band and of the fallen Macedonians, and the material from the unique tomb at Tanagra, a tangible symbol of the importance of the battle within the wider region of Boeotia as well.
Photo Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
Regarding the work ‘Alexander the Great’ (1981) by Andy Warhol loaned from MOMus – the Museum of Contemporary Art, it is a one of the Alexander the Great series realized by Warhol after a commission from Alexander Iola. The Portrait of Alexander the Great depicts the earliest ‘celebrity’ that Warhol immortalized and is the only work created to honour an authentic ancient work of art.An important part of the exhibition is also dedicated to the presentation of the actual historical documents and reports written by those pioneers of Greek archaeological research, Panagiotis Stamatakis and Georgios Sotiriadis, during their excavations at the Theban Polyandrion and the Macedonian Tumulus at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, respectively. This is done to give the fullest possible picture of the way archaeological research brought to light the very battle itself. Also of interest is the evidence on how the modern Greek state handled the battle and its monuments, as well as its reception by the press of the time. The battle, despite its importance, was quite forgotten until travellers mostly from the end of the 18th century begin to gradually discover it, when the marble fragments of the fallen Lion attracted their attention. References in diaries and pictorial representations aroused the interest not only of the academic community, but also of the local population.
The exhibition includes 240 antiquities and historical documents, drawn from 27 Museums and Institutions from within Greece and four private collections too. Many are exhibited to the public for the first time. Also on display are two marble busts from the Chiaramonti Museum in the Vatican, while an ‘Unexpected Visitor’ of importance is Andy Warhol’s ‘Alexander the Great’ (1981) loaned from MOMus – the Museum of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition allows us to archaeologically ‘reach out and touch’ Alexander the Great, as has never and nowhere been possible before, at any place or time. Alexander stands out large in History, but not at all in Archaeology. The written sources about him, although composed after his life, are numerous indeed. The archaeological finds that he left behind – items directly or indirectly tied to him – are rare. In Chaeronea, where he was first introduced to the world as the leader of the Macedonian cavalry, one finds the remains of the people who fought alongside him, who accepted his orders that morning of August, even of those who perhaps were killed by Alexander himself. All this evidence is presented in the exhibition for the first time.
EXHIBITION SECTIONS: 9 sections
1. The protagonists
a. Philip
b. Alexander
c. Demosthenes
2. The opponents
a. The Macedonians: The Macedonian phalanx
b. The coalition of Greek cities: The Sacred Band and Athens
3. Managing the memory of the battlefield
a. The Polyandrion of the Sacred Band
b. The Tumulus of the Macedonians
c. Macedonian burial practices
4. Commemorating the battle in Athens
5. Boeotia and Thebes after the battle
Destruction and reconstruction of Thebes
6. The new Hellenistic world after the battle
a. The wealth of the Hellenistic world
b. ‘Macedonization’ of Boeotia
7. The archaeological rediscovery of the battle (P. Stamatakis and G. Sotiriadis)
8. The modern exploitation of the battle
a. Travellers
b. Painters
c. International, national and local press
9. The battle of Chaeronea…today
Playmobil also makes its contribution to giving visitors the best idea of the battle.
THE BATTLE OF CHAERONEA TODAY
Diorama, Playmobil©
In this last section, an innovative approach to the battle using modern means is attempted, targeting young audiences who do not necessarily often frequent museums. In this section one is able to see a diorama of the Battle of Chaeronea using handmade custom Playmobil figures by the collectors Αngelos Giakoumatos and Tasos Pantazopoulos created for the exhibition with the support of Playmobil Hellas as well as a brief narration of the story using comics.
Also in this area, visitors can experience for themselves this pivotal moment in the ancient Greek world. Two films created by Ubisoft based on the video games Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Origins illustrate and explain the historical setting before and then after the Battle of Chaeronea. Those two films, created especially for the exhibition, help visitors to imagine what people, cities and lands might have looked like at the time.
Tickets | Admission
Regular: 15€
Reduced: 12€
(tickets include admission to the Permanent Exhibitions)
Tickets | Guided Tours
Regular: 18€
Reduced: 15€
(tickets include admission to the Temporary Exhibition, as well as the Permanent Exhibitions)
And the catalog of the exhibition could not be missing which promises to be something wonderful but I’ll tell you about it in the next post!
Who knows if I will be able to go to this exhibition too… it won’t be as easy as going to Naples but I want to try to see if I can do it because I would really like to see it… it would be a dream! Thanks everyone and keep following me,
Source: Museum of Cycladic Art’ website
All material is taken from there without intent to infringe copyright but for informational purposes only. If those entitled feel offended, please contact me and I’ll remove the material.
Alessandro III di Macedonia 
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