27. A Temple Displays Its Secrets
CHAPTER 27
A TEMPLE DISPLAYS ITS SECRETS
C ape Sounion
Surrounded on three sides by the Aegean Sea, the Cape of Sounion would have been a beautiful sight even without the Temple of Poseidon. As the group topped the promontory, a combination of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ sounded. The sun, still well above the turquoise waters to the west, cast the twenty-foot tall fluted marble columns in a yellowish white. Pockets of scrub brush, flowers, and the rubble remains of a now-missing temple covered the rest of the site.
“I see my sister has already begun working,” Marcus groused, his attention on Diana. She was kneeling before one of the marble blocks making up the base of the temple and writing something on her sketchpad.
“And my brother seems to be at her beck and call,” Tom murmured. Randy was in front of the temple assembling what appeared to be an easel.
“Remind me of the mythology of this place,” Barbara said to her husband, clutching his arm as they stepped over the uneven ground and around several clumps of gorse and giant fennel. The yellow flowers were interspersed with the purple blooms of phrygana and covered much of the area around the temple.
“Well, this is where Aegeus, the king of Athens, jumped to his death after mistakenly believing his son, Theseus, had died,” Will began.
“Was this story in the Odyssey ?” she asked.
“Indeed. Theseus had gone to Crete to challenge the Minotaur. If his ship returned with black sails, it meant he had been killed, but if he was victorious, the ship was to be outfitted with white sails.”
“Well, if Aegeus jumped to his death, then he must have seen black sails,” she reasoned.
“He did.”
“But I thought Theseus slayed the Minotaur,” she argued.
“He did. But he forgot to change the sails from black to white to signal his victory,” Will explained.
“How awful.” Barbara displayed a grimace at the same moment they joined Diana in her perusal of the stylobate.
“Have you discovered anything unusual, Sister?” Marcus asked.
Diana straightened and took a step back. “Well, it was obviously an important building,” she remarked as she regarded the ruin.
“How can you tell?” David asked.
“The stylobate,” she replied. “This raised platform,” she clarified. “This high base separated it from the other structures that used to be located here.” She turned around and waved a hand to indicate the other, mostly flat area they had crossed to reach the temple. “There used to be an Archaic temple in this location before this one was built,” she added. “Before the Persians destroyed it.” She moved to the southeast corner and bent to study the blocks nearest the ground. “This is so odd,” she murmured.
“What do you mean?” Randy asked, joining her. He bent down, his hands pressed to his knees.
“Does this look like the same marble to you?” she asked, pointing to the block at the base of the corner.
Randy gave a start. “Reminds me of limestone,” he said, reaching out to scrape a thumbnail over the rough surface. He did the same with the block above and scoffed. “These are different,” he remarked. “Do you suppose they?—?”
“Built this temple atop the other?” she finished for him.
“If a base was already here, why not?” he reasoned.
“I can hardly wait until Father sees this,” she said with a grin.
Standing behind them, Tom surveyed the open area next to the temple. Although no other buildings were located on the headland, there was evidence there might have been given the number of marble pieces embedded in the ground. He kicked the protruding edge of one. “Where did all this marble come from, I wonder? I can’t imagine they would transport it all the way from the quarry near Athens.”
“It’s Agrileza marble,” Randy stated. “From the Agrileza mines nearhere,” he added. “There used to be a temple to Athena on this site, made from the same marble,” he added. “And a statue of Poseidon would have been inside this one.” He pointed to the site’s only remaining temple.
Diana gave a start, obviously surprised he knew the history of the Temple of Poseidon. “You’ll find this marble is far rougher than that used for the temples on the Acropolis,” she said. “That’s why it doesn’t appear shiny under the sun, like the Parian marble does.”
Using a finger, Antonio began counting under his breath, but before he could say anything, Diana said, “Six columns at the front and back and thirteen along each side?—”
“Thirty-eight originally,” Tom interrupted, his attention on the travel guide Donald had composed. He glanced up and noted Diana’s expression of annoyance. “Oh, apologies. I knew it was in my cousin’s notes,” he said lamely.
“Seventeen made it to modern times,” she continued. “However, about fifteen years ago, two of the Doric columns collapsed. At least one of the two, the fifth from the northeast corner,” she lifted a hand to point to where the front columns had at one time been located, “was dismantled on the orders of Commander Paulucci of the Imperial Austrian Navy.”
“Dismantled?” Will repeated, his brows furrowed in dismay.
“The columns were originally constructed by stacking the drums one atop another,” she explained, pointing to the nearest column to show the seams between the drums. “He took one of the columns to the Venetian Arsenal in 1826,” she explained. “Apparently, there were five of the eight original drums as well as the column capital, and they were reassembled in the garden of a palazzo on Fondamenta Briati in Venice.” She rolled her eyes. “At least it was a neoclassical palazzo.”
“How is it you know about that particular column?” Randy asked as he joined them.
“The blocks bore a number of etchings,” she replied. “Graffiti,” she added in disgust.
“Venetian?” Tom guessed.
She nodded. “And French sailors,” she said. “ Le Zefire Bric Du ROI eighteen-sixteen, is one that comes to mind.”
“Eighteen-sixteen?” Will murmured, his gaze on his mind’s eye. “Huh.”
“Were you here then?” Barbara asked him.
He shook his head. “Not while the French were here, but mayhap shortly after,” he replied. He pointed south and drew a line in the air toward the east, indicating a path through the Aegean Sea between the headland and the nearest island. “I remember we passed by here early one morning. I saw this temple at sunrise,” he went on.
“You would have seen it with seventeen columns,” Diana said in awe.
Will’s face took on a look of embarrassment. “I have to admit I did not count them.”
“What of the other column that collapsed?” Randy asked, noting that although there were a couple of column bases, there were no separate drums strewn about on the stylobate. Surely someone would have reassembled them if there had been.
“It’s in England,” Tom stated.
Everyone turned to stare at him. “At the British Museum?” Barbara asked.
“One drum is there,” he acknowledged. “I saw it on display before we departed England,” he added.
“What of the rest of it?”
“It’s under the bust of the sixth Duke of Devonshire. In the garden of Chatsworth House,” David stated, his gaze on his mind’s eye. “Well, four of the drums are there,” he added. “I don’t remember there being more than that.”
They all turned to stare at David. “You’ve seen them?”
He shrugged. “I was invited to a garden party there by one of my friends at university,” he said. “A huge conservatory was under construction at the time.” He motioned with his hands to indicate the unusual shape of the building.
“I haven’t been to Derbyshire in years,” Randy murmured.
“I hear it’s an excellent place to go on one’s wedding trip,” Jane said, her hand still on Marcus’ arm.
“I’ve heard the same,” he said, glancing down to stare at her hand. His attention went to her face when she turned to smile at him.
“When I was your age, my friends used to claim Rome was the best place to go on a wedding trip,” Barbara said.
“Which is why I am taking you there after we go to Egypt,” Will said.
“You’re planning to go to Egypt?” Diana asked. She straightened, her gaze darting to Randy for confirmation.
“When we’re done touring Greece,” he confirmed.
“Oh,” she said on a sigh. She returned her attention to the column base she had been studying near the back of the temple.
From the front of the temple, Antonio shouted, “Jane, you have to come see this!” He scrambled up onto the temple floor to stand before a square column.
Marcus and Jane hurried between the clumps of purple and yellow flowers to join him. When she paused to sort how to negotiate her way onto the base, Marcus said, “Allow me,” as he placed his hands at her waist and simply lifted her onto the marble base.
She inhaled sharply but gave him a brilliant smile as she held out a hand to help him up onto the block. Once they were both on the temple’s floor, they rushed to where her brother stood with his arms crossed.
“Oh, he was here,” Jane murmured excitedly. “Miss Diana, you must come and see this.” She turned to Marcus. “Did you ever meet him?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I did not have the honor. I do have one of his books of poems, however. Those that were inspired by his time here in Greece.”
Holding up her skirts as she made her way around some brush and up the stairs of the stylobate, Diana stopped short at the sight of the column base that had everyone’s attention. Surrounded by other names, the name ‘Byron’ was carved into the marble in curvy English letters.
“Do you suppose he actually did it?” Randy asked after a moment of staring at the inscription. “The carving, I mean.”
“Undoubtedly,” Diana said, her attention going to all the other names etched into the flat ancient marble.
“Look at all these other names,” Randy whispered, using a finger to trace several that appeared to be of Roman origin. “There’s English and French and...” He sighed and moved around to another side of the column to continue his perusal. “Latin and Greek.”
“What are those carvings all about?” Barbara asked, pointing up to a frieze located along the top of an interior colonnade.
Diana followed her line of sight to see a long set of carved images. “They are scenes from mythology,” she replied. “There’s a battle between the Centaurs and Lapiths,” she explained as she pointed to one section. “And the Amazonomachy?—”
“The battle with the Amazons,” Randy interpreted for his aunt.
“And the deeds of Theseus,” Diana finished.
“Aren’t they all meant as an allegory for the Athenians’ victory over the Persians?” Will asked. He had been at the other end of the temple studying the frieze while the others were in search of names they might recognize on the square columns and along the base of the temple.
“Democracy over tyranny,” Randy murmured, unaware of how his uncle regarded him with appreciation.
“Is anyone else starving?” David asked. He stood in the middle of the temple holding up the basket of food he had carried for his mother.
A round of chuckles ensued before several joined him, settling on the marble floor or sitting with their backs against the interior columns to enjoy the bread, goat cheese, olives and fruits that their cook in Athens had packed for them early that morning.
“The sun is going down so quickly,” Jane remarked, helping herself to one of the figs. “The sky is gorgeous.”
“Oh!” Diana said in dismay. She had been studying a series of etchings on the northwestern base of the temple, her back to the setting sun. She hurried to where Randy had set up the easel on the other side of the temple. “Where are my paints?”
“Here,” he said, joining her to open the box he had set on a nearby rock. The size of the marble block suggested it had one time been part of a building on the site, but its edges had been worn away by time, wind, and water. “What is your intention?” he asked, before popping an olive into his mouth.
“I’m going to paint the sunset,” she said.
Randy moved to stand behind where she had taken a seat on the rough block. The outlines of columns and the base of the temple had already been drawn on the canvas she had mounted on the easel.
He watched as she squirted a number of different colored oil paints onto a small palette. “Do you do this often?” he asked. “Paint, I mean?” He watched in fascination as she quickly mixed a few colors together to create a bright blue that matched the sky.
“When there’s time,” she replied. “Usually for my father’s books.”
“For the color plates?”
“Indeed,” she replied, not tearing her attention from her subject. She had dipped a large flat brush into a pot of linseed oil and was spreading a band of blue along the top edge of the canvas when Randy noticed the first dot of light appear in the sky.
“Venus,” he said.
“What about her?” Diana asked as she mixed some other colors on the palette.
“Not the goddess, the planet,” he clarified. He pointed to the only white light in the sky. The bottom edge of the sun seemed to touch the water, and its reflection in the water nearly reached the cape.
She glanced up. “Ah. I shall be sure to include it,” she said, before brushing in the next band of color.
Fascinated by the way she quickly mixed colors and applied them in layers, Randy settled onto the rock next to her and watched both the real sunset and the one she created on the canvas.
A series of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ erupted when the last of the sun dipped below the edge of the Aegean Sea, leaving behind a sky streaked in oranges, pinks, and purples.
Meanwhile, the columns of the temple appeared as reddish-brown silhouettes—as did all those who watched in wonder.