Sanctuary of Athena at Sounion

Sanctuary of Athena at Sounion Synopsis

The Temple of Athena at Sounion is one of the more unusual examples of Greek architecture. It was constructed with colonnades on only two—but adjacent—sides, and in the Ionic order characteristic of the Aegean Islands even though it was built in Attica. When the temple was excavated at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, little was found on site. Instead, subsequent excavations in the Athenian Agora recovered many of the missing building members, which had been reused in a Roman-period temple. A new study of the temple, including the material from Athens, was initiated by H. A. Thompson and W. B. Dinsmoor Jr. but was never completed. The current book builds on their work to provide for the first time a comprehensive view of the temple and its sanctuary.