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.