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Taenărum

Ταίναρον). Now Cape Matapan; a promontory in Laconia, forming the southerly point of the Peloponnesus, on which stood a celebrated temple of Poseidon, possessing an inviolable asylum. A little to the north of the temple and the harbour of Achilleus was a town also called Taenărum or Taenărus, and at a later time Caenepŏlis. On the promontory was a cave, through which Heracles is said to have dragged Cerberus to the upper world. Here also was a statue of Arion seated on a dolphin, since he is said to have landed at this spot after his miraculous preservation by a dolphin (Herod.i. 23; Thuc. i. 128Thuc., 133; Pausan. iii. 25, 4). In the time of the Romans there were celebrated marble quarries on the promontory.

hide References (3 total)
  • Cross-references from this page (3):
    • Herodotus, Histories, 1.23
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.128
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.133
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