Cape Sounion - Temple of Poseidon

A nudist on the secluded rocky beach.

Fortress wall built to protect Sounion from the invading Spartans during the Peloponnesian Wars.

Secluded rocky beach off the cliff.

Me by the column drums.

A profession of their love by a couple, dated 1907.

Although we couldn't find Lord Byron's signature, we captured some as old as the 1800s......

The square column is apparently where the inscription of Lord Byron's name is, according to a blogger.

Me with view of the islets and islands behind me.

My sis, Sarah.

Sare-Bear.

Our yummy lunch - fried kalamari, greek salad, and bread.

Last Friday, my sister and I took an hour and a half bus ride to Sounion, located on the southernmost tip of Attica, Greece. The site we visited was the famous Temple of Poseidon, strategically built on the edge of a high cliff overlooking Cape Sounion and the vast Aegean Sea. From this jutting headland, there is a panoramic view of the surrounding Aegean islands.

Myths and Legends

• According to legend, Cape Sounion is the spot where Aegeus, King of Athens, leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea. The story goes that Aegeus, was anxiously looking out from Sounion, waiting for his son, Theseus, to return home from Crete. Theseus had gone to kill the Minotaur, half man and half bull, that was kept locked up by King Minos of Crete. Every year, the Athenians had to send 14 youths to Minos as tribute and Theseus had gone to slay the Minotaur to end this terror. He was instructed by his dad to put a white sail on the ship if he was alive or a black sail if he had been slain; the crew forgot to change the sail to white on their return home and King Aegeus threw himself off the cliff.
• The earliest literary reference to Sounion is in Homer's Odyssey, composed in the 8th century B.C. This recounts the mythical tribulations suffered by Greek hero, Odysseus, in a gruelling 10-year sea-voyage to return to his native island, Ithaca, after the sack of Troy. This ordeal was supposedly inflicted upon him by Poseidon, to whom the temple at Sounion was dedicated.

History

• Originally there stood an Archaic temple in its place, which was destroyed probably during the Persian Wars. Today, what stands is the columns from the later temple that was built in ca. 440 BC, and contemporaneous to the Parthenon on the Acropolis and the Temple of Hephaistos in the Athenian Agora. In 413 B.C., during the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans, the Athenians fortified the site with a wall and towers, to prevent it from falling into Spartan hands.
• In a maritime country like Greece, Poseidon, the god of the sea, was considered second only to Zeus, his brother. His implacable wrath, manifested in the form of storms, was greatly feared by all mariners. In an age without mechanical power, storms very frequently resulted in shipwrecks and drownings. The temple at Sounion, therefore, was where mariners, and also entire cities or states, could propitiate Poseidon, by making animal sacrifice or leaving him gifts.
• As with all Greek temples, the Poseidon building was rectangular, with a colonnade on all four sides. The total number of original columns was 42: 18 columns still stand today. The columns are of the Doric Order and are made of white marble. They were 20 ft high, with a diameter of 3.1 ft at the base and 31 inches at the top. Inside the temple was a colossal bronze statue of Poseidon.
• The site was excavated in 1906 and the artefacts are now housed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

The Temple of Poseidon in popular culture

• The famous English Romanticism poet, Lord Byron, was said to have carved his name onto the base of one of the columns at this temple. The date of this was possibly from his first visit to Greece, on his grand tour of Europe, before he acquired fame. Byron spent several months in 1810-11 in Athens, including two documented visits to Sounion. There is, however, no direct evidence that the inscription was made by Byron himself.
• Byron mentions Sounion in his poem Don Juan:
  Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
  Where nothing, save the waves and I,
  May hear our mutual murmurs sweep...
• The temple was featured in the 1981 (Gosh-the year I was born!) movie, Clash of the Titans.

Our Outing

• We began by boarding a comfy and fancy Mercedes Benz tour bus that took us to the site for 5.60 euros. We started off by eating a lovely meal of kalamari, Greek salad, and bread at the restaurant that sits just at the entrance of the site. This is a family owned restaurant that has been there for 70 years and I imagine makes tons of money for it is the only one there.
• The site was incredible, much less to see than the Acropolis of course, since there is only one temple but nonetheless still a pleasure. My sis and I took countless pictures of the temple and the great backdrop scenery of the Aegean Sea. As my sister encircled the temple twice, determined to find Lord Byron's insription, I sat and stared out at the sea. It was a beautiful sunny day, as always, and the breeze was delightful.
• After that, we headed down to the rocky, secluded beach which was visited only by the daring and the locals. It was a great place to sunbathe - indeed, we saw an old man sunbathing naked (yes everything hanging and freshly shaved) for us to see. Picture a super tanned Billy Bob Thornton. My sister laughed as I snapped away (Enjoy the pic). This guy and three other ladies were the only ones there, and I soon realized why. The water, although crystal clear, was rocky. Scared that I would slip and scrape my legs or hurt my head, I insisted my daredevil sister to make it to the other side, the sandy tourist beach beside the hotel. There, we swam just as the afternoon sun was ready to set. It was a beautiful day trip that I would definitely do again.