Sounion - "Luce eterna" 12

SOUNION - MYTHOLOGY: From the rock of Sounion suicided the king of Athens Aegeas, seeing in the sea returning from Crete the ship of his son Thisseas with a black flag, because Thisseas had forgotten to put the white flag, as he had agreed with his father, if he killed Minotaurus. In the memory of Aegeas, the all sea was named Aegean sea.

(C. Theodorou)

SOUNION - HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY: Sounion (or “columns” [kolones] or [Kavokolones]) is named the cape in the southern extremity of the prefecture of Attica. The beach are rocky and abruptly. It is raised almost vertical by the sea in big height shaping to the west a small gulf that with isthmus is separated from another eastern bay. Sounion is kown because of its important, from shipping opinion, place but also because of the ruins of the ancient temple of Neptune that are found on it. In this cape existed from their ancient years temple of Athena, protector of Attica. Homer called it “holy Sounion” (Odyssey III, 278), is also reported however by other later writers as Sophocles (Aias 1235), Euripides (Kyklopes 292), Pausanias (I, 1) and Vitrouvios (IV 7). Sounion was fortified at the 9th year of Peloponnesian War for the protection of the transportation of cargoes of wheat (Thoukidides VIII 4) and in particular this fortress was considered the more powerful of Attica, as as reported by Demosthenes (“on crown” 238), Libius (XXXI, 25) and Skylax (21). His walls, departments of which are saved up to today, had thickness of 3,5 m. and encompassed circularly the space in region 500 m. while per 20 metres the wall brought protective square towers. However in general then the region of Sounion reached to the east up to the bay of Thoriko, to the north to the current port of Lavrion, and from westwards up to Anaflystos possessing thus the “Souniaki edge” («τον γουνόν τον Σουνιακόν»] as Herodotus reports (IV 99). The city of Sounion was a coastal small city in the western bay, and the resident “Souniefs” belonged to the race of Leontis and later from 200 BC to the race of Attalis. In 265 BC Patroclus, admiral of Ptolemy built on the opposite island, today named Patroklos, an also strong fortress with the garrison of which succeeded Antigonus Gonatas to occupy Sounion in 260 BC , which was given by Aratos later again to the Athenians in 229 BC.

In 1762 in Sounion wrecked the English poet William Falkoner (1732-1769) who traveled from Venice to Alexandria. About this shipwreck, and his experience, described in a famous poetic trilogy entitled "The shipwreck", which received special acceptance and admiration from critics and the public at the time.

(from Wikipedia)