1 minute read
Cape Sounio
from Cape Sounio
Southernmost Cape of Attica
Sounio is the southernmost headland of Attica, 38 km from Athens, where on the formed hill of 60 meters which was formed by the leveling of the area the Temple of Poseidon was placed with (6) six columns on its short sides and (13) on its long sides from which (15) Doric Columns remain that is why in later times it took the name "Cape of Columns" (Κάβο κολώνες ή Καβοκολώνες).
Advertisement
Temple of Poseidon, Sounio © 2017 A. Baltoyannis
Of course this was a geostrategic area from where the Athenians supervised the movement of ships entering the Saronic Gulf and guarded the precious minerals of Lavrion and finally controlled the sea routes to Euboea which the Athenians of the 5th Century had conquered and had placed there 4,000 colonists from Attica and from which - because of the fertility of the island - took the plant and animal products of the earth, but also supervised the movement to the Cyclades which participated in the Athenian Alliance seated in
Delos, where the alliance protected around 400 CITY- STATES against the Persian state.
Temple of Poseidon
Based on this logic Sounion became a powerful fortress of Attica at the time of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) wherein 413 B.C. a strong 3.00 meters thick wall was built with (11) towers, a permanent garrison was stationed and civilian housing was built within the walls, while in the northwest corner of the cape a space was formed for the accommodation of ships in readiness.
Temple of Poseidon, Sounio © 2017 A. Baltoyannis
Logically, therefore, in the area, the temple of the sea god Poseidon was built in 449 B.C. by Pericles on the site of an earlier one. That too was Doric and built two years before the Parthenon without relief decoration on the pediments but on the outer frieze were sculpted scenes from the Gigantomachy, the Centauromachy and the feats of Theseus.
The building was abandoned in the 1st AD century and gradually ruined. Roman sightseers since Roman times carved countless inscriptions on the north side of the temple, on can even read to this time the signature of the philhellene poet Lord Byron.
