The ancient Temple of Poseidon (built ca. 440BC) at Sounion as it stands today
There is a temple
in ruin stands,
Fashioned by long
forgotten hands;
Two or three
columns, and many a stone,
Marble and
granite, with grass o’ergrown!
Out upon Time! It
will leave no more
Of the things to
come than the things before!
Out upon Time! Who
for ever will leave
But enough of the
past for the future to grieve
O’er that which
hath been, and o’er that
which must be:
What we have seen,
our sons shall see;
Remnants of things
that have pass’d away,
Fragments of
stone, rear’d by creatures of clay!
Lord Byron
Excerpt from The
Siege of Corinth
On a promontory high over the sea, at the tip of Attiki, stands the ancient Temple of Poseidon. Myth has it that King Aegeas tumbled from the cliffs when his son Theseas forgot to change the sails of his vessel as he returned from Minoan Crete after slaughtering the Minotaur. Aegeas had asked that the sails be changed from mourning black to jubilant red if his son and the other youths sent as a tribute to Crete, to feed the Minotaur, returned alive.
Map of Temple site
A sailboat off the coast of Sounion glides by
a section of a marble column
Theseas and the other 13 youths(7 girls and 7 boys) were so happy to make it back alive, they neglected to change the sails. King Aegeas, who waited for this son's return atop the rock at the Temple of Poseidon, spotted the black sails and took that as a sign that his only son had perished. He tumbled to his death off the cliffs into the sea below
That sea, has been called the Aegean ever since.
Overlooking the Aegean sea
Modern day worshipers
Sounion anchorage below the Temple
We visit the Temple at sunset, imagining the processions of ancients bearing offerings to the Sea God. We walk in their footsteps and worship alongside.
Enjoy!
Maria
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