Kykladitisses:
Untold stories of women in the Cyclades

The islands of the Cyclades, known for their beauty and rich history, have been the cradle of a culture that has celebrated women like few others in the world.

The exhibition Kykladitisses: Untold stories of women in the Cyclades at the Museum of Cycladic Art pays tribute to the women of the Cyclades, shedding light on their lives and their role in the societies of the islands of the Archipelago from the Neolithic period until the 19th century. Over 180 masterpieces, most of which have never travelled outside the Cyclades, while others are being presented to the public for the first time, reveal the fascinating world of the women of the Cyclades, who emerge from obscurity and tell us their unknown stories.

Works of unique artistic value portray the Cycladic woman as a goddess, priestess, worshipper, mother, wife, merchant, fighter, intellectual, and sometimes as an image of fear, as a victim of gender violence or as an object of desire. Among them, three works stand out for their uniqueness and size: the Colossal Kore of Thera dated in the Archaic period, which is being exhibited to the public for the first time, the emblematic fresco of the “Women in the Sanctuary” from Akrotiri on Thera, and Artemis Elaphebolos from Delos, a statue from the Hellenistic period, which is being exhibited outside the island for the first time.

Get the most out of your visit by exploring the exhibition through the audio guide available in the Museum’s mobile app.

Download the app free of charge and unlock an in-depth curated narrative of the exhibition.

Join us as we travel through time and the history of the islands of the Archipelago following the transformations and the multiple roles of women from prehistory to the 19th century.

For an optimal experience, please follow the order of the exhibits as they appear on the app screen.

The audio guide tour is available in Greek and English.

You will need to use your headphones for the audio guide.

The exhibition invites the visitor to rediscover the history of the women who shaped the cultural identity of the Cyclades in their own unique way.

But why the Kykladitisses?

Simply because the island complex offers a wealth of sources related to the multiple roles that these women were called upon to play on the Aegean islands. Never has an attempt been made to present their story through the analysis of archaeological and historical sources of evidence in a continuous and easy-to-get way, especially in the context of an exhibition addressed to the general public.

The exhibition places the woman of the Cyclades at the central stage: not only because she can tell the history of the islands in a different way compared to that of ‘men’, but also because Cycladic women embody interesting similarities and differences in their roles through time.

A Greek English bilingual catalogue published as part of the new series of archaeological exhibitions organized by the Museum of Cycladic Art called “Human Histories” for the exhibition “Kykladitisses: Untold stories of women in the Cyclades”. The catalogue presents the transformations and the multiple roles of women that have defined the history of the Archipelago through time highlighting their importance at a time when women continue to assert their independence and respect for their specificity within the modern community, the free choice of the roles that express each of them and their liberation from stereotypes that survive in the common consciousness despite the long struggles of past centuries. The catalogue is divided into two volumes.

The first volume contains 520 pages in which all the artefacts in the exhibition are illustrated in each section in extremely high quality and resolution photographs, together with a brief explanation giving all the details of their identity.