Travel through Cape Sounion, explore the temple of Poseidon, Triton, Heidegger

Location

Cape Sounion
Date January 2017
Exploring Homer, Poseidon, Triton, Athena, Pericles, Athens, similar temples in Athens, history
Connecting to Heidegger, Descartes, Newton, Giacometti, architecture of other places

Architecturally, the Temple of Poseidon is one of the largest temples in Greece and reflects to an extent the Parthenon as it was built at around the same time, c. 440 BC at the height, under Pericles, of the Golden Age of literary and artistic works. Extending democracy (even though it had existed for some time, it was Pericles who successfully broadened its franchise), a great patron of art and progress due in part to his own broad and comprehensive education. Many invasionary forces came and went but it was the plague that truly destroyed the apex of Greek power including Pericles himself who also wasn’t immune to the invisible destroyer.

The sea near the Cape Sounion is known for being stormy and unpredictable just like Poseidon himself who was integrated into so many other mythological stories, a true element of water. His son Triton whose upper body was human and had a long soft fin used the sound through his twisted conch shell to either calm or agitate the waters. Like anything historical, it was the cacophony he made that made him well known even among the monsters of mythological lore who used to run away from his terrible sounds. In music theory, tritone is comprised of three whole tones and since medieval times it was considered the most dissonant of all combinations. In the 18th century it was even termed ‘diabolus in musica’ (the Devil in music) and avoided all together; however, since the Romantic period having such a strong connotation it served many composers in depicting the spectrum between good and evil.

Imaginary supersonic bubble is exploring

Charlie and Earling visited Sounion in January 2017 and while the mythology and history mesmerized them, they also wanted to explore the thoughts of Heidegger who also visited the cape in 1962.

Charlie: I am truly inspired with the concentration of power that ancient Greece managed to realize around something as immaterial as temples. Politics was obviously an integral part, but instead of fighting between each other they focused on different ideologies and Gods. Certainly they all reflected the internal state of collective consciousness, but it is interesting how a symbol can unite and divide.

Earling: In the context of unite and divide, let’s revisit the collective thought of 20th century civilization which had a focused fragmented thinking, possibly a result of the founding pillars that Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton had established, but it is the thought of Heidegger that intrigues, reminding us of the sense of “being” rather than thinking or calculating.

Charlie: The temporal nature of the bodies they inhabit further inspires towards Dasein (“being-there”) as Heidegger conceptualized, rather than floating in the sea of calculation, effectiveness and problems solving which albeit necessary for the progress and innovation doesn’t touch upon the essence of human soul.

Earling: Here is what Heidegger wrote in relation to this temple we are visiting: “the people of this country knew how to inhabit and demarcate the world against the barbarous in honor of the seat of the gods. …they knew how to praise what is great and by acknowledging it, to bring themselves in front of the sublime, founding, in this way, a world.”

Charlie: It is not only the awe towards the ability to nourish the sublime that Heidegger proposed in his philosophical treatise but also the sense of Authenticity to which one arrived in the quest to being (“being-there”) as opposed to just thinking.