Paestum is one of the major archeological sites of Italy, acknowledged together with the National Park of Cilento and Vallo Diano as a Unesco World Heritage site. The foundation of the city dates back to the 7th century b.C. and it owes its origin to the Greeks, who firstly named it Poseidonia to honour Poseidon, the God protector of the sea and all waters, although the worship of Hera and Athena was equally powerful at the time. From about 400 to 273 it was occupied by the Lucanians, and afterwards colonised by the Romans who gave it the name of Paestum. The monumental complex consists of three magnificent Doric temples, and it is one of the greatest examples of the ancient architecture of Magna Graecia: the Temple of Hera, also known with the name of Basilica, built around the 6th century b.C., is the most ancient of the three temples. The Temple of Neptune, built in the 5th century b.C., elegant and sophisticated in his structure, is regardless his name dedicated to the goddess Hera and it is the biggest of the three temples. The third is the Temple of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, erroneously known as the Temple of Ceres, it dates back to the 6th century b.C., and during the Middle Age was converted into a church and it holds on the inside three Christian tombs. The artistic and cultural value of this site is strengthened by the perfect state of conservation of the temples, as for the city walls built by the Greeks and subsequently fortified by the Lucanians and the Romans. Wide is the number of artifacts and other objects belonging to the Greek and Lucanian era found near the archaeological site and now shielded in the National Archaeological Museum. Another relevant element in the museum is constituted by the paintings discovered in the so-called “Tomba del Tuffatore” (480-70 a.C.), one of the ultimate evidences of Greek art returned to us. One of the paintings that gave the name to the tombstone displays a man in the act of throwing himself into the waves, which represents the symbolic passage between life and death.