View source for Sounion

{{for|the attacks on the ship MT Sounion|Attacks on the Sounion}}
{{Short description|Greek cape at the southernmost tip of the Attic peninsula}}
{{Coord|37.652|24.026|type:landmark_dim:25000_region:GR-A2|display=title}}
[[File:Cape Sounion AC.JPG|thumb|View of Cape Sounion and the ruins of the [[Temple of Poseidon, Sounion|Temple of Poseidon]] looking west, with [[Patroklos (Attica)|Patroklos island]] visible in the background]]
[[File:Kap Sounion.jpg|thumb|Sunset at Cape Sounion]]
'''Cape Sounion''' ([[Modern Greek language|Modern Greek]]: Aκρωτήριο Σούνιο ''Akrotírio Soúnio'' {{IPA|el|akroˈtirʝo ˈsuɲo|}}; {{langx|grc|Ἄκρον Σούνιον}} ''Άkron Soúnion'', latinized ''Sunium''; [[Venetian language|Venetian]]: ''Capo Colonne'' "Cape of Columns") is the [[promontory]] at the southernmost tip of the [[Attica|Attica peninsula]], {{convert|8|km}} south of the town of [[Lavrio]] (ancient [[Thoricus]]), and 69.5 km (43.1 miles) southeast of [[Athens]] in the [[Athens Riviera]]. It is part of [[Lavreotiki]] municipality, [[East Attica]], [[Greece]]. 

Cape Sounion is noted for its [[Temple of Poseidon, Sounion|Temple of Poseidon]], one of the major monuments of the [[Golden Age of Athens]]. Its remains are perched on the headland, surrounded on three sides by the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean sea]].

==Climate==

Cape Sounio has a [[hot semi-arid climate]] ([[Köppen climate classification]]: ''BSh''). Cape Sounio experiences hot, dry summers and mild, wetter winters.

{{Weather box
|width = auto
|location= Sounio 
|metric first=yes
|single line=yes
|Jan high C=14.8
|Feb high C=15.5
|Mar high C=16.6
|Apr high C=20.1
|May high C=25.4
|Jun high C=29.9
|Jul high C=33.4
|Aug high C=33.1
|Sep high C=29.1
|Oct high C=24.9
|Nov high C=20.4
|Dec high C=16.8

|Jan mean C=11.5
|Feb mean C=11.8
|Mar mean C=12.9
|Apr mean C=16.1
|May mean C=20.8
|Jun mean C=25.3
|Jul mean C=29.0
|Aug mean C=28.8
|Sep mean C=25.1
|Oct mean C=21.3
|Nov mean C=17.4
|Dec mean C=14.0

|Jan low C= 8.3
|Feb low C= 8.2
|Mar low C= 9.3
|Apr low C=12.0
|May low C=16.3
|Jun low C=20.8
|Jul low C=24.5
|Aug low C=24.5
|Sep low C=21.2
|Oct low C=17.6
|Nov low C=14.4
|Dec low C=11.3

|rain colour = green
|Jan rain mm=58.3
|Feb rain mm=22.2
|Mar rain mm=31.6
|Apr rain mm=14.7
|May rain mm=2.9
|Jun rain mm=7.6
|Jul rain mm= 1.6
|Aug rain mm= 2.5
|Sep rain mm=40.0
|Oct rain mm=20.6
|Nov rain mm=62.8
|Dec rain mm=110.3
|source 1 = [[National Observatory of Athens]] Monthly Bulletins (Jul 2019- Oct 2023)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.meteo.gr/Monthly_Bulletins.cfm|title=Monthly Bulletins|website=www.meteo.gr}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://penteli.meteo.gr/stations/sounio/ | title=Latest Conditions in Sounio }}</ref>

}}

==History==
[[File:NAMA_Statue_of_a_kouros.JPG|thumb|[[Sounion Kouros]] ({{Circa|600 BC}}),  [[National Archaeological Museum of Athens]]]]
[[File:Sounio Naos Poseidona.jpg|thumb|View of the Temple of Poseidon in the sunset]]
The earliest literary reference to Sounion is in [[Homer|Homer's]]  ''[[Odyssey]]'' (III. 278&ndash;285). The story recounts that as the various Greek commanders sailed back from [[Trojan War|Troy]], the helmsman of the ship of King [[Menelaus]] of [[Sparta]] died at his post while rounding "Holy Sounion, Cape of Athens."<ref>{{lang|grc|ἀλλ᾽ ὅτε Σούνιον ἱρὸν ἀφικόμεθ᾽, ἄκρον Ἀθηνέων}} "But when we approached holy Sounion, headland of the Athenians"  (III.278)</ref> Menelaus landed at Sounion to give his companion full funeral honours (i.e., cremation on a [[funeral pyre]] on the beach).

Archaeological finds on the site date from as early as 700 BC. [[Histories (Herodotus)|Herodotus]] (VI.87) mentions that in sixth century BC, the Athenians celebrated a quadrennial festival at Sounion, which involved Athens' leaders sailing to the cape in a sacred boat.

===Deme===
{{Further|Mines of Laurion}}
Sounion was a [[demes|deme]] of the [[Leontis]] tribe (phyle) even before its fortification in the [[Peloponnesian War]]. It sent four men to the ancient [[Boule (ancient Greece)|Boule of 500]] at the time of [[Cleisthenes]], 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 introduced ''Attalid'' phyle (created in honour of [[Attalus I]]).<ref>[https://epigraphy.packhum.org/search?patt=Σουν epigraphic sources] (epigraphy.packhum.org)</ref>

The deme was located between [[Amphitrope]] to the west and [[Thorikos]] to the north. Its territory included parts of the [[Mines of Laurion]]. According to Traill (1986), the center of the settlement was situated somewhat to the north of the cape, between the modern settlements of ''Ano Sounio'' and ''Kato Sounio'' (close to {{coord|37.674|24.030|}})<!-- ?? about 3&nbsp;km from the site of the  ''Aghia Triada Ano Sounion'' chapel [37.6965,24.0178] -- why use this as a reference when 3 km is in fact a longer distance than the distance from the cape itself?
Needs verification. Super detailed map: http://www.topoguide.gr/mountains/attiki/hiking_on_attiki_lavrio.php 
http://e-telalis.gr/γνωρίστε-την-αττική/θεματικές-βόλτες/item/8-αγία-τριάδα-–-άνω-σούνι
-->.<ref>John S. Traill, ''Demos and trittys. Epigraphical and topographical studies in the organization of Attica''. Athenians Victoria College, Toronto 1986, p. 131.</ref>

Sounion was fortified in the nineteenth year of the [[Peloponnesian War]] (413&nbsp;BCE) for the purpose of protecting the passage of the cornships to Athens,<ref>{{Cite Thucydides|8.4}}</ref> and was regarded from that time as one of the principal fortresses of Attica.<ref>[[Demosthenes]], ''pro Cor.'' p. 238; ''[[Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax]]'', p. 21; {{cite Livy|31.25}}</ref> Its proximity to the silver mines of Laurium probably contributed to its prosperity, which passed into a proverb;<ref>Anaxand. ap. Athen. 6.263c</ref> but even in the time of [[Cicero]] it had sunk into decay.<ref>[[Cicero]] ''ad Att.'' 7.3</ref> 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, and [[Anaphlystus]] on the west, is called by [[Herodotus]] the Suniac angle (τὸν γουνὸν τὸν Σουνιακόν).<ref>{{Cite Herodotus|4.99}}</ref> Though Sounion was especially sacred to [[Athena]], we learn from [[Aristophanes]] that [[Poseidon]] was also worshipped there.<ref>[[Aristophanes]], ''Kn.'' 557, ''Aves'', 869.</ref>

===Temple of Poseidon===
{{Main|Temple of Poseidon, Sounion}}
[[File: Attica 06-13 Sounion 20 Temple of Poseidon.jpg|thumb|Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, built {{circa|440 BC}}.]]

The original, [[Archaic Greece|Archaic-period]] temple of Poseidon on the site  was built of [[tufa]]. The [[Sounion 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 by [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian]] troops during [[Xerxes I|Xerxes I's]] [[Second Persian invasion of Greece|invasion of Greece]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/museum/collections/museum-highlights/sounion-kouros.|title=Sounion Kouros|website=University of Cambridge Faculty of Classics|access-date=2018-02-22|archive-date=2013-10-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005101226/http://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/museum/collections/museum-highlights/sounion-kouros|url-status=dead}}</ref> After they defeated Xerxes in the naval [[Battle of Salamis]], the Athenians placed an entire captured enemy [[trireme]] (warship with three banks of oars) at Sounion as a [[trophy]] dedicated to Poseidon.<ref>Herodotus, ''Histories'', VIII.121.</ref>

The [[Ancient Greek temple|temple]] of [[Poseidon]] at Sounion was constructed in 444–440 BC.  This was during the [[Golden Age of Athens|ascendancy]] of the Athenian statesman [[Pericles]], who also rebuilt the [[Parthenon]] 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 {{convert|60|m|ft}}. The design of the temple is a typical [[hexastyle]], i.e., it had a front [[portico]] with six columns.<ref>[[Perseus Digital Library]] @ www.perseus.tufts.edu (search term: 'Sounion').</ref> Only some columns of the Sounion temple stand today, but when intact it would have closely resembled the contemporary and well-preserved [[Temple 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 the [[Doric Order]]. They were made of locally quarried white marble. They were 6.10&nbsp;m (20&nbsp;ft) high, with a diameter of 1&nbsp;m (3.1&nbsp;ft) at the base and 79&nbsp;cm (31&nbsp;inches) at the top.<ref>Perseus Digital Library, for search term 'Sounion'</ref> 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, the [[cult image]], a colossal, ceiling-height ({{convert|6|m|ft}}) bronze statue of Poseidon.<ref>W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' (1987).</ref>

===Temple of Athena===
[[File:Sounion Temple of Athena.jpg|thumb|View from within the remains of the temple of Athena, looking west.]]

The temple of [[Athena]] Souniados (Ναός της Αθηνάς Σουνιάδος {{coord|37.653|024.027|}}), was located on a low hill some 300&nbsp;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 by [[Vitruvius]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Sounion,+Temple+of+Athena&object=building|title=Sounion, Temple of Athena (Building)|website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref> It was built adjacent to a [[peribolos]] identified as the [[burial mound]] and [[Heroon|shrine]] to [[Phrontis]], the helmsman of [[Menelaus]] whose burial at Sounion is mentioned in the ''[[Odyssey]]''.

A smaller Doric temple next to the temple of Athena is thought to have been dedicated either to the hero Phrontis or to [[Artemis]].<ref>Herbert Abramson, "A Hero Shrine for Phrontis at Sounion?", ''California Studies in Classical Antiquity'' 12 (1979), pp. 1-19.</ref>
A deep pit southeast of the [[temenos]] 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 the [[Ancient Agora of Athens|Agora]].<ref>Christopher Mee and Antony Spawfort, ''Greece: An Oxford Archaeological Guide'' (2001), p. 100.</ref>

===Fortress===
[[File:Bastion Delta of the fort from the north, Cape Sounion, Greece (14103699374).jpg|thumb|Remains of Bastion Delta seen from the north.]]
In 413 BC, during the [[Peloponnesian War]] against the [[Sparta]]ns, 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 from [[Euboea]]. Athens' supply situation had become critical since the city's land supply lines had been cut by the Spartan fortification of [[Dekeleia]], to the north of Attica.<ref>[[Thucydides]], ''Peloponnesian War'' VII.28 and VIII.4.</ref> The Sounion fortress was soon later seized from the Athenians by a force of rebel slaves from the nearby silver mines of [[Laurium]].<ref>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Sunium}}</ref>

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 ({{coord|37.6524|24.0228|}}).<ref>David Blackman, Boris Rankov, ''Shipsheds of the Ancient Mediterranean'' (2013),  [https://books.google.com/books?id=6jZEAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA531 p. 531].</ref> The fortress was maintained well into the Hellenistic period.<ref>Mark H. Munn, ''The Defense of Attica'' (1993), p. 10.</ref> Repairs and additions to the fortress were made during the [[Chremonidean War]] (266&ndash;261 BC).

==Literary reception==
[[File:Graffito Byron at Sounion.jpg|thumb|Lord Byron's name carved into temple of Poseidon]]

The name ''Capo Colonne'' (graecicized {{lang|el|Καβοκολώνες}} ''Kavokolones'') 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 by [[George Wheler (travel writer)|G. Wheler]] (1676), Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1718),[[Jean-Baptiste Le Roy|J.-D. Le Roy]] (1754), [[Richard Chandler (antiquary)|R. Chandler]] (1765) and [[Edward Dodwell|E. Dodwell]] (1805). Scottish poet [[William Falconer (poet)|William Falconer]] (1732–1769) was shipwrecked off Cape Colonna, as Sounion was then known, in 1750, an event depicted in the central scene of his ''The Shipwreck'' (1762).<ref>George Gilfillan, ''The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair and Falconer'' (1854), [https://archive.org/stream/poeticalworksbe01blaigoog#page/n192/mode/2up p. 165].</ref>

The inscribed name of [[George Gordon Byron|George 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 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 ''Isles of Greece'':

<blockquote><poem>Place me on Sunium's marbled steep,
Where nothing, save the waves and I,
May hear our mutual murmurs sweep...<ref>Byron, ''Don Juan'', Canto the Third "The Isles of Greece". Romantic Circles, ''The Byron Chronology'', webpage: [http://www.rc.umd.edu RC-UMD].</ref></poem></blockquote>

[[Martin Heidegger]] visited Sounion during his journey to Greece in 1962, as described in his book ''Sojourns''.<ref>''Sojourns: The Journey to Greece'', translated by J. P. Manoussakis, State University of New York, 2005, p. 43ff.</ref> 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.).

==Modern development==
[[File:At Cape Sounio (Attiki, Greece) (3734132499).jpg|thumb|Sounion beach and Aegeon Beach hotel, seen from Cape Sounion (July 2009 photograph).]]

Cape Sounion remains a popular day-excursion for tourists from Athens, with the [[sunset]] over the [[Aegean Sea]], as viewed from the ruins, a sought-after sight since the first development of modern tourism in the early 19th century.<ref>Edward Dodwell, ''A Classical and Topographical Tour Through Greece: During the Years 1801, 1805, and 1806'' (1819), [https://books.google.com/books?id=GQFdAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA539 p. 539]</ref>

The [[Lavreotiki]] municipality was established in 1890 under the name of ''Sounio'', 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 the [[Athens 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. The [[Grecotel]] Cape Sounio luxury resort was built in 1973.<ref>[https://fr.hotels.com/ho215985/cape-sounio-grecotel-exclusive-resort-laureotique-grece/ fr.hotels.com]</ref>

The project Arrangement of the Archaeological Site of Sounion (2011&ndash;2013) was co-financed by the Greek [[Ministry of Culture and Sports (Greece)|Ministry of Culture and Sports]] and the European Union ([[European Regional Development Fund|ERDF]]).

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

*"Sounion" in: Stillwell (ed.), ''The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites'' (2017), [https://books.google.com/books?id=NpArDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA854 p. 854].

==External links==
{{Commons category|Sounion}}
* [http://www.stoa.org/metis/cgi-bin/qtvr?site=sounion&node=2&pan=330&tilt=5 360 Panorama from Temple of Poseidon]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110514032116/http://www.ancientathens3d.com/sounion/indexsou%20En.htm Sounion 3D]

{{National parks of Greece}}
{{Landmarks of Attica}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Attica]]
[[Category:Headlands of Greece]]
[[Category:Landforms of East Attica]]
[[Category:Places in the Iliad]]
[[Category:Athens Riviera]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Attica]]