DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1031#0235
CHAPTER XXVII.
Diva quibus retinens in summis urbibus arees.
Catuix. lxiv. v. 8.
The Temple of Sunium is about five miles to the
south of Lagrona. Standing above the shore on a
high rocky peninsula, its white columns are visible
at a great distance from the sea. There is some-
thing very appropriate in the choice of this position
for a temple dedicated to the tutelary goddess of
the Athenian soil. Minerva thus appeared to stand
in the vestibule of Attica. The same feeling which
placed her statue at the gate of the citadel of Athens
erected her temple here. In the former situation,
however, as the nearer and more vital of the two,
she was the Champion (Upo/iaxps) of Athens: while
in the more distant, upon the projecting cliff of
Sunium, which commands a wider survey, she was
the QHpovoia) Providence of the whole country.
By means of her temple on this promontory her
protection was stretched, and her power asserted, to
the extreme limit of the land. By the belief of her
3 SchoL Aristid. Dind. p. 27. Tlpovoia 'Adi/va e*X.»)'0ij..,eir' aKpas
tiJs 'Attuk^s, ijyovv -rod Sovviov.
O
Diva quibus retinens in summis urbibus arees.
Catuix. lxiv. v. 8.
The Temple of Sunium is about five miles to the
south of Lagrona. Standing above the shore on a
high rocky peninsula, its white columns are visible
at a great distance from the sea. There is some-
thing very appropriate in the choice of this position
for a temple dedicated to the tutelary goddess of
the Athenian soil. Minerva thus appeared to stand
in the vestibule of Attica. The same feeling which
placed her statue at the gate of the citadel of Athens
erected her temple here. In the former situation,
however, as the nearer and more vital of the two,
she was the Champion (Upo/iaxps) of Athens: while
in the more distant, upon the projecting cliff of
Sunium, which commands a wider survey, she was
the QHpovoia) Providence of the whole country.
By means of her temple on this promontory her
protection was stretched, and her power asserted, to
the extreme limit of the land. By the belief of her
3 SchoL Aristid. Dind. p. 27. Tlpovoia 'Adi/va e*X.»)'0ij..,eir' aKpas
tiJs 'Attuk^s, ijyovv -rod Sovviov.
O