Ode to a Grecian Sojourn: Sounio

Two days late, but I have a good explanation!

Sounion is a very southern point of the mainland of Greece about an hour out of Greece.

Legend has it that King Aegeus sent his son, Theseus, to kill the Minotaur in Crete. Aegeus told Theseus that when he returned - if he was successful - to show a white sail. If the Minotaur killed Theseus, then show a black sail. Well, Theseus went off to kill the Minotaur without problem, but he fell in love with a beautiful women and asked her to come back to Sounion with him. She agreed and so they sailed home. But Theseus totally spaced on putting up the white sails. So when Aegeus saw the black sails coming into the harbor, he though his son was dead, and he flung himself off a cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea.

The temple of Poseidon was built in 440BC and is perfectly positioned to honor him. They say it's best to come at sunset, but our day - unfortunately - did not include sun. (Of all the days we've had...today not so much sun.)

Here's the temple:

This column is particularly interesting. Lord Byron loved this spot so much, he carved his name into the rock. It's on the middle stone near the bottom where it's a little lighter (so many people over the years have touched it - it's now roped off). If you can enlarge the pic, you can plainly see the word Byron chiseled into the stone.

A quick note: we started the day at the National Archaeological Museum - yeah, we saw some shit.