Taenarum (town)
Taenarum or Tainaron (Ταίναρον) or Taenarus or Tainaros (Ταίναρος), was an Ancient Greek settlement in the region of Laconia on the Mani Peninsula in the southern extreme of the Peloponnese. It was situated 40 stadia (5 miles (8.0 km)) north of Cape Tainaron, which is today called Cape Matapan.[1][2] The name is sometimes anglicized as Tenarus.
Taenarum was significant in Greek mythology. A nearby cavern was considered the entrance to the Greek underworld and the opening through which Heracles dragged Cerberus into the realm of Hades and Orpheus led Eurydice. Modern-day writers have used the word "Tenarus" as a metonym for the underworld itself.[3]
Findings
An epitaph found in Taenarum records a man named Justus, son of Andromache, from Tiberias. He is believed to have been a first- or second-generation refugee displaced from Judaea in the aftermath of the First Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE).[4]
Resources
Taenarum was famous for a green marble that was much-prized in the ancient world, and for the "Marmor Taenarium" marble which was valued for its red and black highlights.[5]
It was also a major source of the Murex sea snail used to produce Tyrian purple dye, a luxury item.
References
- ^ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 58, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
- ^ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
- ^ "Tenarus". Encyclopaedia Americana. pp. 188–189.
- ^ Collar, Anna, ed. (2013), "The Jewish Diaspora in the west: the rabbinic reforms, ethnicity and the (re?)activation of Jewish identity", Religious Networks in the Roman Empire: The Spread of New Ideas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 178–179, ISBN 978-1-107-04344-2, retrieved 2026-03-18
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link) - ^ Porter, Mary Winearls (1907). What Rome was Built with: A Description of the Stones Employed in Ancient Rome. p. 92.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Taenarum". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.