Lithography print of Sounion / Temple of Poseidon
Excellent detail, black and white
36 x 48 cm (14.2 x 18.9 inches)

Cape Sounion (Aκρωτήριο Σούνιο) is a promontory located 69 km (43 mi, by road) SSE of Athens, at the southernmost tip of the Attica peninsula in Greece. Noted as the site of ruins of the ancient Greek temple of Poseidon (the god of the sea) in classical mythology, the remains are perched on the headland, surrounded on three sides by the sea. The ruins bear the deeply engraved name of English Romantic poet Lord Byron (1788 - 1824). The site is a popular day excursion for tourists from Athens, with sunset over the Aegean Sea viewed from the ruins a sought-after spectacle.

The temple at Sounion was a venue where mariners, and also entire cities or states, could propitiate Poseidon, by making animal sacrifice or leaving gifts. Constructed in ca. 440 B.C. over the ruins of a temple dating from the Archaic Period, the Temple of Poseidon is perched above the sea at a height of almost 60 m. Its design is a typical hexastyle, with a front portico with 6 columns. Only some columns of the Sounion temple stand today, but 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.

At the centre of the temple colonnade would have been the 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 (6m) bronze statue of Poseidon, probably in gold-leaf. Archaeological excavation of the site in 1906 uncovered numerous artefacts and inscriptions, most notably a marble kouros statue and an impressive votive relief, both now in the Athens National Archaeological Museum.