MUSÉE ARCHÉOLOGIQUE DE DION

This museum (Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο Δίου/Archaiologiko Mousio Diou) brings together some of the artifacts discovered on the Dion site as well as in the rest of the Pieria region. Carefully presented, it covers a period from the Neolithic to the beginning of the Byzantine era. On the first floor, the tour begins with six ^2nd-century statues representing children of the god of medicine Asclepius: Machaon, Hygie, Aiglé, Panacée, Acéso and Podalire. Other fine sculptures await you: a moving bust of a child (^3rd century), a second statue of Hygie (^1st century), goddess of health, with her snake coiled around her body... Further on, note the bemata (^2nd century), votive plaques offered to Isis bearing the imprints of feet and an ear. The feet are of different sizes: the largest is that of the goddess, the other that of a pilgrim. And the sanctuary of Demeter is home to some of Dion's oldest statues, in particular a head of the Goddess of Fertility and a statue of Aphrodite dating from the ^4th century B.C. Finally, the most impressive sculpture is a ^2nd-century marble trapezophore (table stand) depicting the brutal scene of Leda trying to fend off Zeus, who has taken on the appearance of a swan

Giant mosaic of Dionysus. Upstairs, the centerpiece is the hydraulis, a ^1st-century hydraulic organ found near the sumptuous "House of Dionysus". This lead-pipe musical instrument was powered by a waterfall that activated a pump that compressed air to play the keys on a keyboard. Other highlights include a superb bronze head of the Roman emperor Severus Alexander (222-235) and the broken skull of the "Dormeuse", a young girl buried with Mycenaean vases around 1,400 BC at Makrygialos (33 km north of Dion), still wearing her bronze diadem. The floor also houses a mosaic of Medusa from the "House of Dionysus". But the largest mosaic from this wealthy villa, built around 200 AD, is on display in the building next door. Here, a passageway provides an elevated view of the 100 m² polychrome tesserae pavement that adorned the banqueting hall: the Triumph of Dionysus. The god of Wine and Drunkenness is depicted with his tutor Silenus in a chariot pulled by sea panthers ridden by ichthyocentaurs (fish-centaurs). The scene is framed by six prosopa (theatrical masks).