Cape Sounion and the Temple of Posiedon

Cape Sounion, a couple of hours east of Athens along the coast, has a temple of Posiedon sited where the king of Athens, Aegeus, died. He was at the point waiting for his son Theseus to return from fighting the Minotaur on Crete. Theseus had agreed that his crew would hoist white sails when he returned as an indication that he had survived the contest or black sails if he had been killed. He forgot and when Aegeus saw the black sails, the king leapt to his death. Homer mentions Cape Sounion in the Odyssey. This Temple of Posiedon was built ca. 440 B.C under the ascendancy of Pericles about the same time he was rebuilding the Parthenon in Athens.