Description : The temple of Athena Sounias (Ναός της Αθηνάς Σουνιάδος 37.653°N 024.027°E), some 300 m northeast of the temple of Poseidon, is built on a low hill. It was built in 470 BC, replacing an older building of the 6th century. Its architecture was unusual inasmuch as it had a colonnades on the southern and eastern, but not on the western or northern sides, a peculiarity mentioned by Vitruvius. It was built adjacent to a peribolos identified as the burial mound and shrine to Phrontis, the helmsman of Menelaus whose burial at Sounion is mentioned in the Odyssey. A smaller Doric temple next to the temple of Athena is thought to have been dedicated either to the hero Phrontis or to Artemis. A deep pit to the southeast of the temenos was used to deposit the remains of the Archaic-period offerings destroyed in the Persian invasion. The temple of Athena was demolished in the 1st century AD, and parts of its columns were taken to Athens to be used in the South-East temple of the Agora.
See on map »