July 9: Pergamum Museum

On Saturday (July 9) the weather improved, and we did too much. We had a date to have dinner at the house of Mark, a friend of Janet's from her time in Berlin. But on the way, so to speak, I convinced all to make a quick trip to see the Pergamonmuseum on Museuminsel in the heart of Berlin. I knew this would be a sneak-preview as it were of the holdings there, and though that the larger scale stuff housed in this museum (rather than the smaller sized classical holdings in the Altes Museum next door) would be more attractive to Nicholas and the other non-classicists. The museum, with the Pergamum altar, its showpiece, was indeed impressive (you may see the goddess Hekate battling Giants at top right). I had looked forward to the altar, having been to Pergamum (a magnificent site near the coast of Turkey, situated on an amazing hill rising far above the surrounding plain), but I had already seen it in many a illustration—and I was grumpy in principle about the fact that it had been stripped from its original context, as have been so many ancient works of art. The altar is a work of the Hellenistic period, if you're keeping track, and depicts a battle between gods and giants meant to memorialize a victory by the king of Pergamum over the Gauls nearby (these Gauls weren't French, then, but were, like the natives of France, considered barbarians by the Greeks & Romans). The Greeks routinely used myths like this to celebrate historical moments they were proud of: this monument, like the artwork of the Athenian acropolis (one major inspiration for it) characterized the victory over the enemy as a victory for civilization and order over wildness monstrous barbarians.

I was less prepared for, and therefore more impressed by, the Ishtar Gate from Babylon (near Baghdad: photo to left). This gate dates to around the time the Persians (from Iran) conquered the Babylonians (as most of the other inhabitants of the Near East). It was the Greek defeat of the Persian advance that provided the impetus for the most famous buildings and art of the Athenian acropolis. The lions and other beasts from this gate are the sort of eastern art that inspired so much Greek art.



But too much in that line. I said we did too much on Saturday. That's because, having paid the price to see all the museums on Museum island, we decided that we had to try another one, and made a quick jaunt through the Altes National Museum, home to many of Berlin's old master paintings. This was in itself quick enough, but what with the obligatory break for coffee (or was it beer?) afterwards, and a bit of S-bahn confusion, we found ourselves an hour late for dinner at Mark's. Part of the problem was a repair to the S-bahn line, resulting in our need to make use of the Scheinenersatzverkehrbus (Rail-substitute-traffic-bus, or something along those lines): Berlin public transportation is wonderful, but they keep it wonderful by doing lots of repair work (and all of Berlin is still, to some extent, under construction).