Finally we made our way to Sounion, a site on the south-east tip of the Attic peninsula where there is a temple to Poseidon. It is a very picturesque spot, though extremely windy- that's due to the location on the coast, I think, since all of my friends who went there also reported high winds. Apparently sunset there is quite lovely- my friend Gina has pictures that prove this- but we were there during the middle of the afternoon.
The temple of Sounion! You may notice that this temple is a different color than the temples on the Acropolis- still in the range of white-ish, but not so red or yellow. This temple was made not with Pentelic marble, like the Parthenon was, but was instead made with locally quarried stone. Since this stone had a very low iron content, it did not produce that same hue as it aged.
The view to the west- this is clearly a picturesque spot!
If this picture was considerably larger than it is, you would be able to see something rather exciting on the square column just above the join in the rocks- specifically, you would be able to see Byron's name, which he carved there while visiting the site. Carving one's name into a site is actually a tradition with ancient roots- many of the great monuments of Egypt have the names of Greek sailors carved into them. Sort of like a guestbook, I suppose. They don't let you do that sort of thing nowadays.
And these are the cliffs where Aegeus, the father of Theseus, stood to watch for his son's ship coming back from Crete. I trust that you are all familiar with the story- Theseus told his father that he would put up white sails if he was alive, Theseus forgot and sailed with black sails, Aegeus saw this and, assuming that his son was dead, threw himself off the cliff. That is, according to legend, how the Aegean sea got its name.
Finally we made our way to Sounion, a site on the south-east tip of the Attic peninsula where there is a temple to Poseidon. It is a very picturesque spot, though extremely windy- that's due to the location on the coast, I think, since all of my friends who went there also reported high winds. Apparently sunset there is quite lovely- my friend Gina has pictures that prove this- but we were there during the middle of the afternoon. 
The temple of Sounion! You may notice that this temple is a different color than the temples on the Acropolis- still in the range of white-ish, but not so red or yellow. This temple was made not with Pentelic marble, like the Parthenon was, but was instead made with locally quarried stone. Since this stone had a very low iron content, it did not produce that same hue as it aged. 
The view to the west- this is clearly a picturesque spot! 
If this picture was considerably larger than it is, you would be able to see something rather exciting on the square column just above the join in the rocks- specifically, you would be able to see Byron's name, which he carved there while visiting the site. Carving one's name into a site is actually a tradition with ancient roots- many of the great monuments of Egypt have the names of Greek sailors carved into them. Sort of like a guestbook, I suppose. They don't let you do that sort of thing nowadays. 
And these are the cliffs where Aegeus, the father of Theseus, stood to watch for his son's ship coming back from Crete. I trust that you are all familiar with the story- Theseus told his father that he would put up white sails if he was alive, Theseus forgot and sailed with black sails, Aegeus saw this and, assuming that his son was dead, threw himself off the cliff. That is, according to legend, how the Aegean sea got its name.
No comments:
Post a Comment