Hey everyone, it's Lydia again! It's been a while since you've heard from me on a personal article. I apologise for that but I'm hoping to be able to start delivering regular articles to you all again! Now, some of you may remember I introduced my Mythology Profiles series a few months ago. It appeared to be a success and I am finally able to deliver the second installment to you. For the first one, about the God Hades follow this link.
I hope you all enjoy this article and feel free to request future profiles you'd like to see!
I'd like to thank Krystle for this incredible layout !
- All pictures + art below belong to their respective owners!(To make the photos in the gallery below bigger, simply click on them)For my second profile, I introduce to you: The God of the Sea, Poseidon! Poseidon was voted by you as the God you would most like to see next, thus your wish is my command. In my experience, Poseidon has typically been seen as one of the 'nicer' Gods and one of the least problematic - however, maybe that's just if you're like me and found your interest in Mythology through the Percy Jackson books. In this profile, I'm going to explore how true this actually is (spoiler alert: not very).The Basics:
Poseidon is one of the twelve major deities of the Greek pantheon, believed to be housed upon the top of Mount Olympus. He is the God of: the seas, earthquakes, storms, horses and tidal waves. The island of Atlantis was said to be his domain. Brother of Hades and Zeus, he is the second son of Titans, Cronus and Rhea. The origins of the sons, according to myth, is that they were swallowed by their father Cronus but saved, along with his siblings, by Zeus.
However, there are some accounts that Poseidon was actually saved by his mother Rhea, and not swallowed, who concealed him amongst a flock of lambs. She then pretended to have birthed a colt, which she gave to Cronus to swallow instead. Upon the defeat of the Titan Era by Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, the Earth was split in three and each brother ruled over one of the areas: The Sea (Poseidon), The Sky (Zeus) and the Underworld (Hades).
In Roman Mythology, Poseidon is known as Neptune.
As the God of the Sea, Poseidon was relied upon by sailors for safe passage through his waters, thus also making him worshiped for navigation. Strangely, he was also worshiped as a fertility God, despite that factor not being one of his areas.
Noticeably apparent in the gallery below, Poseidon is famous for wielding a trident (also known as a three-pronged spear). With this, he could strike the trident and cause an earthquake earning him the nickname of 'Earth Shaker'.
Children and Other Sibling Similarities:
As I mentioned earlier, myself, I considered Poseidon as one of the lesser problematic Gods - and oh, how wrong I was.
Similarly to his brother, Zeus, Poseidon was known for pursuing many, many women - despite being married to a Nereid named Amphitrite. Thus, he has produced many offspring from Divines, Mortals, Animals etc. Using the blood of the decapitated Gorgon, Medusa, Poseidon was able to conceive the creation of Pegasus, a winged-horse. He also conceived another horse, named Arion, after trying to woo his sister, Demeter, who turned into a mare to avoid him. However, he turned himself into a stallion and further pursued her. He is also known for producing Giant and Cyclops children. With Amphitrite, a son named Triton was produced, half-fish half-human.
Honestly, there is a massive list of his children that I could list but trust me when I say, it is big. If Zeus is considered to be the one to 'woo' Ancient Greece, I'm afraid to see how long his list is!
In further similarities to Zeus, both enjoyed 'exerting their power over women and flaunting their rugged masculinity' - thus the serial womanising. However, unlike Zeus, his effort were more appreciated such as when he saved Amymone (Daughter of Danaus, a mythical King of Egypt) from a Satyr.
Interestingly, Poseidon is also known to have had three male lovers: Nerites (A minor Sea deity, Grandson of Titan, Gaia), Pelops (King of the Ancient Greek town of Pisa) and Patroclus (King of Opus, as recorded in Homer's Iliad).
Connections:
Despite being the God of the Sea, Poseidon is known as having spent most time upon Mount Olympus. However, he did have a palace on the Ocean floor, said to be made of gems and coral. His symbols are: trident, fish, dolphin, horse and bull.
He is also frequently associated with chariots (thus the horse symbol) and ships (as the God of the Sea), yet despite this, he did not actually create them. Rather, the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena, was the first to make one of each item.
Poseidon is also further connected to Athena as he was a major civic God of several cities, one of which included Athens, where he was second in importance only to Athena herself. The two actually competed for possession of the city. To sway the people to his side, he made it spring at the Acropolis (an ancient citadel, now famous in Modern times for containing the remains of several ancient buildings, including The Parthenon - a former temple dedicated to Athena). People loved the water but as they moved to taste it, they found it tasted of salt water, to their dismay.
Athena, however, presented the city with an olive tree. This gift was more useful as it produced the olives as sustenance but also as a source of oil for lamps and cooking, plus the wood of the tree could be used for their homes and boasts. Thus, she won and was crowned patron deity of Athens.
A final Poseidon connection is seen as the odd picture in the gallery - Poseidon's Temple. Or at least, what's left of it. It is located on Cape Sounion, a promontory (I'm terrible at geography but it's basically a small island) South East of Athens. The remains are perched on the headland, surrounded by the sea on three sides, further emphasising why the site was chosen for Poseidon. The ruins bear the deeply engraved name of English Romantic poet, Lord Byron (1788–1823).
In the modern day, the site is a popular tourist attraction, especially with the very sought-after sight of the sunset of the Aegean Sea, viewed from the ruins.
Like all Greek Mythology, there are some rumours as to events that have occurred here. One is that Cape Sounion is the spot where Aegeus, King of Athens, leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea. However Pausanias (An Ancient Greek traveler and geographer) mentions the Acropolis as the place where this episode took place.
In Conclusion:
To actually refer back to my initial thoughts, as well as finding that Hades was less problematic than Poseidon (refer to the first profile for evidence), I also found that Poseidon is not as 'nice' as one may think. I was way off base as Poseidon is actually considered to be one of the most foul tempered, greedy and moody of all the Gods. He was moody and unstable by nature, with his emotional fluctuations often resulting in violence. If insulted, he was known for being very vengeful. However, as mentioned previously, he is not all bad, known to have saved people (even if his intentions were not so pure) and he is also known for having assisted the Greeks in the Trojan War - though commanded to stop under the order of Zeus.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this basic introduction into the Mythology of the Greek God of the Sea, Poseidon!
The Next Profile: HERA, Goddess of Women and Marriage !
Feel free to suggest who you would like to see in the future!
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