Reception in Pictures: Sightings from Ravensburg and Berlin

Museums, historic architecture, and more

Here are some ancient Mediterranean tidbits from the rest of my trip to Germany. I spent a single day in Ravensburg doing research at a game museum, then enjoyed a weekend of downtime in Berlin. By downtime, of course I mean visiting as many museums as possible!

A modern replica of the Game of the Snake, an ancient Egyptian board game, in the Ravensburger Museum. The rules have been lost to history, but some enthusiasts, including designers at the Ravensburger game company, have taken stabs at making up new ones.

The Ravensburger Museum is a very interactive space: it features galleries with artifacts from the history of the company and its designers, but also a game zone, a bunch of play spaces for kids, and a reading room. The reading room is full of Ravensburger-published books, including this gorgeously illustrated Homer retelling.

A build-your-own Coliseum, in the gift shop at the Ravensburger Museum.

I kept running into Hermes on my adventures: fitting, given that he’s the god of travellers. Here, he lends his name to a business in Ravensburg. Note the pretty Medieval buildings in the reflection of the shop window!

On my first evening in Berlin, I went exploring and stumbled across this gorgeous ancient-inflected fountain in a park near my hotel. I sent photos to a friend who grew up in the city: she told me I’d discovered the Märchenbrunnen, or the Fountain of Fairytales.

The fountain was built in 1913 in a neo-Baroque (a.k.a. heavily Greco-Roman influenced!) style. Look at those arches and columns…

The Märchenbrunnen has a long and fascinating history: if you’re interested, this site is a good starting point for further reading.

A couple statues of Athena with ancient Greek heroes, decorating one of the many bridges on Berlin’s Museum Island. They’re some of the first sights you see when you emerge from the island’s metro station.

A viewing gallery in the Egyptian Museum. I love these benches shaped like Nile river boats: they live in a big open room that’s ringed with sarcophagi and ancient stonework. A perfect spot to sit and take in all the history!

The curatorial team at Berlin’s Altesmuseum (Ancient Museum) are out for blood this summer! Their temporary exhibit on women in Greek mythology is very well put together: however, I’m worried that this interactive voting booth will incur some Olympian wrath…

I voted for Penelope, but only after much deliberation. I was tempted to choose Athena (who I maintain should have been Paris’ choice in mythology), but Athena favours Penelope, so hopefully I’m safe. Plus, Penelope needed the vote!

The women in mythology exhibit had some very interesting displays about modern reception and pop culture: a gallery after my own heart! Here’s a couple of ancient artifacts paired with modern-day toys, including, to my delight, a Playmobil set. I grew up with Playmobil, although they unfortunately weren’t making Greek mythology playsets when I was a kid. I made it up to myself by bringing a couple figurines home from Greece.

That’s all in terms of photos for this trip, unless you’d like to see some ancient artifacts or the multitudes of pictures I took at the Berlin Wall. I did spend two weeks back in Greece after my madcap museum weekend in Berlin: however, I don’t have many photos related to ancient reception from there. I was in hardcore vacation mode and mostly focused on eating lots and going to the beach!

I hope you’re having a lovely summer, adventurous or otherwise. Be on the lookout for more exciting writings (that rhymes!), here at A Reception Collection.