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Key Details
Type
TempleMythology
Greek Pantheon
Coordinates
37.65°N, 24.026°E
About This Location
Poseidon's cliff, a father's mistake
Sounion is a marble temple of Poseidon on Attica's southern tip. The Odyssey already parks a death here: Phrontis, Menelaus's helmsman, is struck down at sacred Sounion. Later storytellers (Plutarch's Theseus and the common school version) have Aegeus watch for white sails and throw himself down when Theseus forgets. The leap is not in Homer. The cult is Poseidon's; the suicide is an Attic footnote attached to a conspicuous cape.
Primary Sources
“Phoebus Apollo slew the helmsman with his gentle shafts, as he held the tiller, at sacred Sounion.”
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