TAINARON
(Cape Matapan) Peloponnesos, Lakonia,
Greece.
A promontory at the S tip of the center
peninsula. The isthmus connecting with the mainland is
flanked by two harbors, Psamathos (Amathous) on the
E and Achilleus on the W. Pausanias saw there a temple
resembling a cave with an image of Poseidon, and
Plutarch mentions an oracle of the dead. The remains
of the sanctuary, which served as a refuge for criminals,
are near the Church of the Asomaton, which employed
some of the blocks. The temple was partly cut from the
rock and partly built with rough stones. A door on the N
side opened into a passage that bisected the building, leaving large rooms on the E and W. Herakles was supposed
to have dragged Kerberos from Hades through a cave
nearby. On the W side of the peninsula at Kyparissos there
was a settlement in the Roman Imperial period, nicknamed Caenopolis (New Town) but in official inscriptions called “the town of the Tainarians.” There are
ancient remains in the vicinity which may indicate the
sites of the Temple of Aphrodite and Megaron of Demeter mentioned by Pausanias.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Thuc. 1.128, 133; Plut.
De sera numinis vindicta 17;
Paus. 3.25.4; J. G. Frazer,
Paus. Des. Gr. (1898) III 395f; F. Bölte in
RE 4A
2 (1932) 2049.
M. H. MC ALLISTER
