Reverse Engineering

 

Back in Athens after my mini-odyssey around Folegandros, Sikinos and Syros, I had a little time to spare, and my good friend and fellow writer Jane Cochrane had recommended I should pay a visit to the Kotsanas Museum, not far from Syntagma.

Basically, it's a place of miracles where the technological achievements of ancient Greece – dating back as far as 2000BC – are brought back to stunning life.

I was primarily interested in the musical intruments: the lyres, the percussion items and the world's first keyboard. 

But the really mindblowing exhibits were the re-creations of things that I never knew existed: such as an alarm clock, a door with an intruder alert, an automated theatre, and a female robot wine-server.

They were based on "simple" principles involving water, air and sand – no electricity, no pollution, no waste. They were all things largely left behind by "progress". Truly amazing.

See Naples and Live – 21: Breasts or Testicles?

©Nigel Summerley

While I was reading a century-old book relating the story of the Hittite empire, a reference to "Artemis of the Many Breasts" reminded me of one of the most curious sights in Naples' National Archaeological Museum – pictured above.

My first thought on seeing her was certainly that this was a goddess with a profusion of breasts. But when I read the accompanying notice, I was informed that these were in fact bulls' testicles and thus symbols of fertility.

Either way, this was a pretty weird image. But I was sold on the testicles, and stuck to that explanation when showing this photograph to other people.

However, now it doesn't seem to be quite so clear-cut. The breasts explanation held sway for a very long time in the past – so much so that one statue of the goddess had multiple jets of milk-like liquid spurting from every protuberance (not dissimilar to the Naples fountain depicting Parthenope – see this blog 23 November, See Naples and Live – 14: Sirens, Sirens Everywhere...).

One argument for the testicles, though, is that if these were the goddess's breasts, surely they would be coloured dark, to match her face and hands? Their distinctly different colouring suggests that they are indeed testicles detached from their bovine owners to be made into fashion accessories with a religious significance.

Whatever the truth, this stunning statue remains just one of myriad reasons to visit a museum overflowing with marvels.

See Naples and Live – 4: Beyond Words, Beyond Pictures

©Nigel Summerley

The other day I talked about being lost for words – in the subterranean world hidden away beneath the centre of Naples.

But not long after that, I was somewhere where I was not only lost for words, but sickened by sights that I could not allow myself to even hold up a camera to. (The picture above is of one of the more wholesome exhibits.)

That's not to say that I wish I had not visited Napoli's Museo di Anatomia Umana; everyone should see what can be seen there – if they can stomach it.

This is definitely not light entertainment. As well as showing assorted bodies and bits to illustrate the workings of the human being, the Museo also has a collection of what can go terribly wrong with it – in the form of deformed foetuses that never made it into life, but have an eternal life here preserved in large jars in formaldehyde or alcohol.

There are more than 50 of these on show, and to see them is like being present at some mass atrocity – although the atrocity here has been committed by nature (or, rather, its failings).

I will not go into details any more than I am able to provide photographs.

But I do say: go and face these awful things – and realise how blessed you are to be alive.

Experienced Again

In an age when so many museums and exhibitions seem to feel the need to dumb down and/or succumb to commercial pressures, it was a much more than pleasant surprise to visit the new Hendrix museum in central London.

Based in Jimi's old flat in Brook Street, it has the right balance of information, music and relevant artefacts.

The high points are his old acoustic on which he worked on most of his classics, including his iconoclastic version of Bob Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower'; audio clips of him in the studio; and the reconstruction of his tastefully exotic bedroom.

Most of the furnishings are brilliantly sourced substitutes, but the mirror over the fireplace is the one that was there originally. And there is something decidedly spooky about looking into a mirror that you know Hendrix also looked into.

Then there is his record collection, perhaps the best mirror of all of the man. Everything he had is catalogued here, and in some cases there are the original album sleeves too. Above all, Hendrix was a blues man – the evidence here is in countless records by Lightning Hopkins, plus Howlin' Wolf, Robert Johnson, and the classic Albert King record 'Live Wire/Blues Power'. He also had, not surprisingly, pretty much everything by Dylan.

I bought my copy of 'Are You Experienced' in Paris in 1967 and so managed to get the psychedelic Barclay sleeve (below), rather than the extremely straight UK version. It was nice to find that Hendrix, too, had the French version in his collection rather than the English one, and that his was here on display.

It was also touching to find that when Jimi discovered that Handel had lived in the same building, he went down to the local record store and got a couple of the man's albums to check him out. The sleeves of those are here too – as is the Handel museum, next door.

Book to see them both - you will not be disappointed.