Sunium or Sounion

Definition:

Sunium, a cape in Greece, is the southernmost promontory of the Athenian area of Attica. A temple built there in the 440s B.C., was thought to have been dedicated to Athens' goddess Athena, until 1898 when an inscription identified the god so honored -- Poseidon. Sunium, which was near the Laurium silver mines, was also important as an alternative war-time sea route for food to Athens.

In the Odyssey 3.278, Apollo killed the steersman of Menelaus' ship at Sunium. In the stories of Theseus and the minotaur, Theseus' father jumped to his death at Sunium. The poet Byron inscribed his initials in the marble of Poseidon's temple, 11 of whose Doric columns still stand.

References:

• _{"Sounium" The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996.}
  
• _{1911 Encyclopedia - Sunium}
  
• _{"Tourism and the Environment"
  Mohamed Tangi
  Ambio, Vol. 6, No. 6, The Mediterranean: A Special Issue (1977), pp. 336-341.}
  
• _{"Athenian Food Supplies from Euboea"
  H. D. Westlake
  The Classical Review, Vol. 62, No. 1 (May, 1948), pp. 2-5.}
  

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Also Known As: Cape Colonna

Alternate Spellings: Sounion