020 



THE NATIONAL CKOGkAl'l 11C MAGAZINE 



Photograph 



A STREET IN TllE MOUNTAIN VILLAGE OE 

 SOUTHERN GREECE 



their lives rather than make such an 

 avowal. 



SUNIUM, SUPREME BEAUTY SPOT OE 

 GREECE 



I think if I were asked to name the 

 most beautiful spot in Greece, the one in 

 which loveliness and extent of outlook, 

 coupled with a wealth of tradition, make 

 the greatest appeal, my reply would be 

 the Temple of Poseidon at Sunium (see 

 illustration, page 606). 



A great author remarks somewhere that 

 no matter what opinion he held, he was 

 always comforted to know that some one 

 else shared it. I confess to a slight grati- 

 fication in recalling here that Byron says 



that "in all Attica, if we 

 except Athens itself 

 and Marathon, there 

 is no scene more inter- 

 esting; to the anti- 

 quary and artist (it is) 

 an inexhaustible source 

 oi observation .and de- 

 sign ; to the philoso- 

 pher the supposed 

 scene of some of 

 Plato's conversations 

 will not be unwel- 

 come." 



This beauty patch on 

 the face of Nature lies 

 at the extreme south- 

 ernmost point of the 

 peninsula which is em- 

 braced in the modern 

 province of Attica. It 

 is a rugged headland 

 rising 200 feet above 

 the sea. 



Apparently, from 

 earliest times the spot 

 was sacred. Homer 

 and other ancient writ- 

 ers chronicle its sanc- 

 tity, while its beauty 

 has been sung in mod- 

 ern times by Byron, 

 Chateaubriand, and de 

 Heredia. 



That erudite indi- 

 vidual, "every school- 

 boy," will remem- 

 ber "Place me on 

 S u n i u m ' s marble 

 steep." De Heredia's exquisite sonnet, 

 beginning "Le temple est en mine an 

 haut du promontoire," is perhaps less well 

 known. 



The remains now crowning the steep 

 are from the temple built toward the end 

 of the fifth century B. C. ; thirteen mas- 

 sive marble columns are still standing. 

 On one of these Byron carved his name, 

 and this is still visible. 



To modern eyes the act seems banal and 

 unworthy of the poet; yet it is interesting 

 to recall that Chateaubriand, who was 

 prevented by high water from visiting the 

 Great Pyramid, charged a friend to write 

 his name thereon, "according to custom," 

 at the first opportunity, and concludes in 



by Fred Boissonnas 

 ANURITS.ENA, 



