The museum’s ancient sculptures may look peaceful as they stand there, frozen in the same poses they have held for thousands of years.
But don’t be fooled; behind their calm exteriors lies a wealth of wild myths and equally wild stories.
In this podcast, historian Sander Funch and the Glyptotek’s Interpretation Manager, Kathrine Andersen, take you on an exciting and surprising journey beneath the sculptures’ still surfaces.
For what does an ancient sculpture really reveal about the person who created it – and about the person it portrays?
Each episode of Mennesket i marmor (The Human in Marble) takes its starting point in one of the Glyptotek’s ancient sculptures. Each one points toward a world that is both the origin of our own culture and at the same time radically foreign.
The podcast does not shy away from the aspects of antiquity that may feel disturbing today.
In the ancient world, people could be property. Violence and sexual exploitation were fundamental conditions of society. The gods were not moral role models but capricious, powerful figures driven by desire, jealousy and revenge.
It was a world where the strong had the right to kill the weak, and where rape and slavery were not exceptions but part of everyday life.
Mennesket i marmor moves through some of antiquity’s most extreme and unsettling stories: Hercules, who in divine madness murders his own family. Emperors like Nero, who castrate their lovers. Warlords like Caesar, who proudly report selling tens of thousands of people as slaves in a single day.
These things may sound shocking, but what is truly shocking is how central they were. Violence and ownership over other human beings are not on the periphery of antiquity. In many ways, they are its driving force.
At the same time, this is the very world that produced some of the most sublime creations humanity has ever made: sculpture, architecture, philosophy, drama and mythology that continue to shape our ideas of what it means to be human.
This is the world the ancient sculptures come from. And it is the world Mennesket i marmor delves deeply into, in order to create a greater understanding of what they truly represent.
The podcast is in Danish.
Please note: Because Mennesket i marmor explores several violent stories, the podcast is not suitable for children.