37°39′07″N24°01′34″E / 37.652°N 24.026°E /37.652; 24.026
Cape Sounion (Modern Greek: Aκρωτήριο ΣούνιοAkrotírio Soúnio[akroˈtirʝoˈsuɲo];Ancient Greek:Ἄκρον ΣούνιονΆkron Soúnion, latinizedSunium;Venetian:Capo Colonne "Cape of Columns") is thepromontory at the southernmost tip of theAttica peninsula, 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) south of the town ofLavrio (ancientThoricus), and 69.5 km (43.1 miles) southeast ofAthens in theAthens Riviera. It is part ofLavreotiki municipality,East Attica,Greece.
Cape Sounion is noted for itsTemple of Poseidon, one of the major monuments of theGolden Age of Athens. Its remains are perched on the headland, surrounded on three sides by theAegean sea.
Cape Sounio has ahot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification:BSh). Cape Sounio experiences hot, dry summers and mild, wetter winters.
| Climate data for Sounio | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 14.8 (58.6) | 15.5 (59.9) | 16.6 (61.9) | 20.1 (68.2) | 25.4 (77.7) | 29.9 (85.8) | 33.4 (92.1) | 33.1 (91.6) | 29.1 (84.4) | 24.9 (76.8) | 20.4 (68.7) | 16.8 (62.2) | 23.3 (74.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 11.5 (52.7) | 11.8 (53.2) | 12.9 (55.2) | 16.1 (61.0) | 20.8 (69.4) | 25.3 (77.5) | 29.0 (84.2) | 28.8 (83.8) | 25.1 (77.2) | 21.3 (70.3) | 17.4 (63.3) | 14.0 (57.2) | 19.5 (67.1) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 8.3 (46.9) | 8.2 (46.8) | 9.3 (48.7) | 12.0 (53.6) | 16.3 (61.3) | 20.8 (69.4) | 24.5 (76.1) | 24.5 (76.1) | 21.2 (70.2) | 17.6 (63.7) | 14.4 (57.9) | 11.3 (52.3) | 15.7 (60.3) |
| Average rainfall mm (inches) | 58.3 (2.30) | 22.2 (0.87) | 31.6 (1.24) | 14.7 (0.58) | 2.9 (0.11) | 7.6 (0.30) | 1.6 (0.06) | 2.5 (0.10) | 40.0 (1.57) | 20.6 (0.81) | 62.8 (2.47) | 110.3 (4.34) | 375.1 (14.75) |
| Source:National Observatory of Athens Monthly Bulletins (Jul 2019- Oct 2023)[1][2] | |||||||||||||
The earliest literary reference to Sounion is inHomer'sOdyssey (III. 278–285). The story recounts that as the various Greek commanders sailed back fromTroy, the helmsman of the ship of KingMenelaus ofSparta died at his post while rounding "Holy Sounion, Cape of Athens."[3] Menelaus landed at Sounion to give his companion full funeral honours (i.e., cremation on afuneral pyre on the beach).
Archaeological finds on the site date from as early as 700 BC.Herodotus (VI.87) mentions that in sixth century BC, the Athenians celebrated a quinquennial festival at Sounion, which involved Athens' leaders sailing to the cape in a sacred boat.
Sounion was ademe of theLeontis tribe (phyle) even before its fortification in thePeloponnesian War. It sent four men to the ancientBoule of 500 at the time ofCleisthenes, and later (3rd century BC) six men to the Boule of 600. In the 2nd century BC, Sounion is still on record as a deme, but now considered part of the recently-introducedAttalid phyle (created in honour ofAttalus I).[4]
The deme was located betweenAmphitrope to the west andThorikos to the north. Its territory included parts of theMines of Laurion. According to Traill (1986), the center of the settlement was situated somewhat to the north of the cape, between the modern settlements ofAno Sounio andKato Sounio (close to37°40′26″N24°01′48″E / 37.674°N 24.030°E /37.674; 24.030).[5]
Sounion was fortified in the nineteenth year of thePeloponnesian War (413 BCE) for the purpose of protecting the passage of the cornships to Athens,[6] and was regarded from that time as one of the principal fortresses of Attica.[7] Its proximity to the silver mines of Laurium probably contributed to its prosperity, which passed into a proverb;[8] but even in the time ofCicero it had sunk into decay.[9] The circuit of the walls may still be traced, except where the precipitous nature of the rocks afforded a natural defence. The walls which are fortified with square towers, are of the most regular Hellenic masonry, and enclose a space of a little more than half a mile in circumference. The southern part of Attica, extending northwards from the promontory of Sounion as far as Thoricus on the east, andAnaphlystus on the west, is called byHerodotus the Suniac angle (τὸν γουνὸν τὸν Σουνιακόν).[10] Though Sounion was especially sacred toAthena, we learn fromAristophanes thatPoseidon was also worshipped there.[11]
The original,Archaic-period temple of Poseidon on the site was built oftufa. TheSounion Kouros, discovered in 1906 in a pit east of the temple alongside fragments of other statues, was probably one of a number of votive statues dedicated to Poseidon which probably stood in front of the god's sanctuary. The archaic temple was probably destroyed in 480 BC byPersian troops duringXerxes I'sinvasion of Greece.[12] After they defeated Xerxes in the navalBattle of Salamis, the Athenians placed an entire captured enemytrireme (warship with three banks of oars) at Sounion as atrophy dedicated to Poseidon.[13]
Thetemple ofPoseidon at Sounion was constructed in 444–440 BC. This was during theascendancy of the Athenian statesmanPericles, who also rebuilt theParthenon in Athens. It was built on the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic period. It is perched above the sea at a height of almost 60 metres (200 ft). The design of the temple is a typicalhexastyle, i.e., it had a frontportico with six columns.[14] Only some columns of the Sounion temple stand today, but when intact it would have closely resembled the contemporary and well-preservedTemple of Hephaestus beneath the Acropolis, which may have been designed by the same architect.
As with all Greek temples, the Poseidon building was rectangular, with a colonnade on all four sides. The total number of original columns was 34, of which 15 still stand today. The columns are of theDoric Order. They were made of locally quarried white marble. They were 6.10 m (20 ft) high, with a diameter of 1 m (3.1 ft) at the base and 79 cm (31 inches) at the top.[15] At the center of the temple, there would have been a hall of worship (naos), a windowless rectangular room, similar to the partly intact hall at the Temple of Hephaestus. It would have contained, at one end facing the entrance, thecult image, a colossal, ceiling-height (6 metres (20 ft)) bronze statue of Poseidon.[16]
The temple ofAthena Souniados (Ναός της Αθηνάς Σουνιάδος37°39′11″N24°01′37″E / 37.653°N 024.027°E /37.653; 024.027), was located on a low hill some 300 m northeast of the temple of Poseidon. It was built in 470 BC, replacing an older building of the 6th century BCE (https://www.ancient-greece.org/architecture/temple-athena-sounio.html). Its architecture was unusual, as it had colonnades on the southern and eastern sides, but not on the western or northern sides, a peculiarity mentioned byVitruvius.[17] It was built adjacent to aperibolos identified as theburial mound andshrine toPhrontis, the helmsman ofMenelaus whose burial at Sounion is mentioned in theOdyssey.
A smaller Doric temple next to the temple of Athena is thought to have been dedicated either to the hero Phrontis or toArtemis.[18]A deep pit southeast of thetemenos was used to deposit the remains of the Archaic-period offerings destroyed during the Persian invasion.
The temple of Athena was demolished in the 1st century AD, and parts of its columns were taken to Athens to be used in the South-East temple of theAgora.[19]
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In 413 BC, during thePeloponnesian War against theSpartans, the Athenians fortified the site with a wall and towers to prevent it from falling into Spartan hands. This would have threatened Athens' seaborne grain supply route fromEuboea. Athens' supply situation had become critical since the city's land supply lines had been cut by the Spartan fortification ofDekeleia, to the north of Attica.[20] The Sounion fortress was soon later seized from the Athenians by a force of rebel slaves from the nearby silver mines ofLaurium.[21]
The Temple of Poseidon was situated in the southeastern corner of the fortress, with the garrison quarters arranged along a main stream on the western slope of the hill. The fortress included a small naval base, with a shipshed for two warships in the northwestern corner (37°39′09″N24°01′22″E / 37.6524°N 24.0228°E /37.6524; 24.0228).[22] The fortress was maintained well into the Hellenistic period.[23] Repairs and additions to the fortress were made during theChremonidean War (266–261 BC).
The nameCapo Colonne (graecicizedΚαβοκολώνεςKavokolones) is reported from the 17th century, for the reason that unusually, several columns of the temple of Poseidon had remained standing since antiquity. Early modern descriptions in travelogues include those byG. Wheler (1676), Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1718),J.-D. Le Roy (1754),R. Chandler (1765) andE. Dodwell (1805). Scottish poetWilliam Falconer (1732–1769) was shipwrecked off Cape Colonna, as Sounion was then known, in 1750, an event depicted in the central scene of hisThe Shipwreck (1762).[24]
The inscribed name ofGeorge Lord Byron, carved into the base of one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon, possibly dates from his first visit to Greece, on hisGrand 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 poemIsles of Greece:
Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep...[25]
Martin Heidegger visited Sounion during his journey to Greece in 1962, as described in his bookSojourns.[26] He refers to the "gleaming-white ruins of the temple". In the strong sea breeze "these few standing columns were the strings of an invisible lyre, the song of which the far-seeing Delian god let resonate over the Cycladic world of islands". He marvels at "the way that this single gesture of the land suggests the invisible nearness of the divine and dedicates to it every growth and every human work" (ibid.). He goes on to reflect "the people of this country knew how to inhabit and demarcate the world against the barbarous in honour of the seat of the gods. ...they knew how to praise what is great and by acknowledging it, to bring themselves in front of the sublime, founding, in this way, a world" (ibid.).
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Cape Sounion remains a popular day-excursion for tourists from Athens, with thesunset over theAegean Sea, as viewed from the ruins, a sought-after sight since the first development of modern tourism in the early 19th century.[27]
TheLavreotiki municipality was established in 1890 under the name ofSounio, and renamed to Lavreotiki in 1891. Cape Sounion itself is located between the villages of Kato Sounio and Legrena.
The Sounio national park (Εθνικός Δρυμός τού Σουνίου) was established in 1974 with a core area of 750 hectares.
Forming the southeastern endpoint of theAthens Riviera, Sounion is now an upscale summer home location for Athenians. Construction of villas across the bay northwest of Cape Sounion flourished in the 1960s to 1970s. TheGrecotel Cape Sounio luxury resort was built in 1973.[28]
The project Arrangement of the Archaeological Site of Sounion (2011–2013) was co-financed by the GreekMinistry of Culture and Sports and the European Union (ERDF).
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