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For iust as Zeus ruted the sky, Poseidon was lord of the seas and Hades the supreme authority in the dark Underworld. fUrf Wqrs Poseidon, who won the right to rule the seas, was also the god of horses and of earth- quakes. Poseidon's domain actually extended beyond the oceans to include freshwater rivers, even though the river gods were the sons of Oceanus and Tethys. Mlthmakers often depicted Poseidon as gruff and quick to anger. He sometimes resented the greater dominion of Zeus. Perhaps for this reason, Poseidon lived not in olympus, but in an underwater palace off the eastern coast of Greece. His subordinate position to Zeus made him sensitive about his other rights. Poseidon got into more arguments over city patronage than any other olympian. He contested the patronage of Argos with Hera and the patronage of Corinth with Helius. Poseidon lost both disputes and had to content himself with the patronage of various islands and seaports. The most famous of these disputes was the fight over Athens with Athena. Poseidon claimed the land by plunging his trident into the ground of the Acropolis and creating a . salt-water spring. But Athena later planted the first olive tree beside this well and ciaimed the city as her own. Poseidon immediately challenged her to combat, but Zeus intervened and put the f.natter before a divine tribunal. Wishing to remain neutral and above the ftay, ze:us did not vote, That left four other gods, all of whom voted for Poseidon. (Hades, as was his custom, did not attend the Olympian hearing.) The five goddesses, however, all sided with Athena, giving her the right to the land by virtue of her greater gift to the city. In a fury, Poseidon flooded the Attic plain. The Athenians adopted several measures to appease Poseidon's wrath. The city denied the women of Athens the right to vote. It ended the practice of men carrying on their mothers' names. And ali Athenians con- tinued to honor both Poseidon and Athena on the Acropolis. Bccstly Cooplingr, Beostly Childten Poseidon courted Amphitrite, one of the Nereids (daughters of Nereus, the old Man of the Sea). Yet Amphitdte scorned the 8od's advances and fled to the Atlas Mountains. poseidon refused to give up and sent messengers after her to plead his case. One of these, Delphinus, argued so persuasively for his master that he broke down Amphitrite,s resis- tance. She agreed to marry Poseidon. (The god later showed his gratitude by placing his messenger's image in the sky as a constellation: the Dolphin.) Like his brother Zeus, however, Poseidon was not exactly the poster boy for fidelity. He too had numetous affairs with goddesses, nyrnphs, and mortals. Like most sea gods, Poseidon had the power to transform his shape, and often did so in order to complete a seduction: ) He appeared to the maiden Medusa as a bird. Unfortunately, he chose as the setting for this seduction one of Athena's temples. The enraged goddess punished Medusa by turning her into a Gorgon (sbe Chapter 10). > To mate with Theophane, whom he had changed into a ewe in order to hide her from her many suitors, he transformed himself into a ram. ) When Demeter, overwhelmed by the loss of her daughter persephone, attempted to escape her brother's attentions by changing herself into a mare, poseidon was not fooled. He changed himself into a staluon and mated with her in an Arcadian pasture Poseidon also mated in the shape of a dolphin and a bull. These many transformations had a powerful influence on his offspring, too: L Medusa's children were the winged horse Pegasus and the giant wardot Chrysaor. ) His union with Theophane produced the famous Golden-Fleeced ram (see Chapter 14). ) Demeter had two children by him: the nymph Despoena and a wild and remarkable horse named Arion. ) Many of his children were giants, including Chrysaor, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and the trouble-making brothers Otus and Ephialtes. As a father, Poseidon was very protective, not only toward his three children by Amphitrite, but toward the children of his many mistresses, too. poseidon made his son Cycnus invulnerable to weapons. He helped Theseus prove his parentage in a bragging contest with King Minos of Crete (see Chapter 15). And he avenged the blinding of Polyphemus by tormenting Odysseus for 10 years (see Chapter l8). f ' -{ 'l ANCESTRY.,, i:e. dh :+ - '# !:3 CnoHus & Rxrl 'r * CRONUS RHEA EI PosrooN $ }:T AMPHITRITE li ,f -#"d{- -*'*"##" .lk god ;:3 MEDUSA .L EURYACE ,.r gOOOeSs ':3 * man S woman THOOSA * POSEIDON }:3 IPHIMEDEIA ':3 * POLYPHEMUS * OTOS * EPHIALTES nPOSEIDON INEPTUNE Poseidon was the Greek god of the seas and toater; Neptune was the Roman equiualent. ronus had thlgs 5en5- Poseidon planned to bind up This hostiliry arose from the Zeus, Hades, and Zeus, but was thwafied by the dishonesry of the Tlojan king, Poseidon-who hundred-armed monster Brareus, Laomendon, father of Priam. overthrew their father and whom Zeus summoned from The king had agreed to give divided the woild between them. Tarrarus for his protection. Apollo and Poseidon a sum of Poseidon became the ruler of the Most of Poseidont children money for building the walls of sea, a role he performed with inherited their father's violent Ti"oy, but, when the task was considerable violence. The sea remperament. His sol-l completed, he refused to pay god's rages were terrifring, Polyphemus, a Cyclopes, was them. Although Apollo was especially when he stirred up notorious for eating some of content to send a plague on the the waves with his magic trident, Odysseus' followers. The Greek Tiojans in punishment, Poseidon a gift from the Cyclopes. leader managed to escape only by was not satisfied untilTioY had Poseidon also caused blinding Polyphemus with the been sacked by the Greeks. earthquakes. He lived beneath heated end of a stake, an injury Neptune, Poseidon's Roman the Aegean Sea in a palace, from for which Poseidon found it hard counterpart, was a less important which he rode out in a chariot to forgive Odysseus. god, probably because the sea pulled by majestic seahorses. was not as significant to the On one occasion, Poseidon ENEMY OF THE TROJANS Romans as it was to the Greeks. dared to challenge Zeus' In the works of the epic poet supremacy. With the aid of the Homel Poseidon is the goddesses Hera and Athena, implacable foe of the Tlojans. Ntrl, luNtr ()N A Ft()R.sl. A 17th-centtrr,y painting depicting Poscidon riding through the sens on a horsc. Hc is holding thc tident made for him by the Cyclopes. +r3E eHrS FIr*rat I riE if F.s f d $EFEE $EE I [*g;Hii g s ;Fsgig*r l+*AFeei nQ go trl rtI gE t{ EA$E IIEf 6 ggggiggi,g$Fisi;; tlet;l$gt:i ;i a+lF r; t ; r.i iEffiL"rl{,ffii#j;ffi-ry .:,.'a;'r. ffi;i..i'.ffiffi POSEIDON, coD OF THE OCEANS Poseidon, God of the Oceans poseidon received the oceans as his portion when the victorious Olympians divided.the universe among themselves. The stories about him reflect the respect, love and fear that the sea inspired in the Mediterranean world. The sea q,as of great inrportance to the Greeks often dark gocl. He was so significant that in sorne ancl Romans, because it was one o[ their principal parts of the Mediterranean he was regarded as means of transport ancl comtnttnication. Sea equal to Zer-rs. Myths arose drawing parallels travel, however, was fiaught with danger, so both between the stories of their births, explaining that cultures perceivecl Poseiclon as a dangerous and Poseidon hacl also lteen protected by his mother, A triumphanl Poseidon, holding his trident aloft, is pulled by seahorses in his ocean-going chariot. 49 A mosaic from the first half of the 3rd century lo, found in a house in modern-day Tunisia. THE FIRST FAMILY OF OLYMPUS r-rncler the Rhea, as a newltclrn llally. Altl'ror-rgh Cr To be ruler of the seas and everything that lives in them should make even the most ambitious god contented, frlr there is magic and beauty in the mysterious depths not found elsewhere. As god of the sea, Poseidon could not merely enjoy his strange world, he could also harness at will the power of tempests, sending great waves to lash against the rocky shores of Greece, upsetting fishing boats and sending even the larger sailing ships flying before the wind for sheiter. When Zeus, Hades and Poseidon deposed theit father Cronus, they divided the earth, the sea and the sky between tl'rem. Poseidon dtew the kingdom of the oceans as his share. He was not the only god of the seas, for others had ruled there fr<>m earlier times. They seem t() >\- have been more good-natured and less jealous than the later gods, for they accepted Poseidon's domination quite happily. ()ceanus, son of \,:l -'.: ;:4< ,'{ the Titan fJranus, was the creat()r of the world's waters. l{e took the i* form of a vast, endless river encircling the earth; his children were the oceans, seas, and also the iakes, rivers and small streams of t1're land. The sun god Flelios used Oceanus t() return eacl-r day to the east after driving his chariot acr()ss the sky. Another sea gocl was Nereus, a kindly old man of tl.re sea who helped sailnrs in distress. He is chiefly known as tl.re father <>f fifty daughters, tl-re nereids, beautiful sea nymphs who appear in many of the Greek legends as wives of both gods and men. At first, Poseidon was content in his ocean kingdom. Off Aegae, on the coast of lluboea, some cleys \'{ 'yagc south clf Athens, ire built a magnificent palace on the sea bed. lt rvas adorned with white turrets and great arcl-red doorways encrustecl u'itl.r corals and sl-iells, u'hile on the walls cif tl-re thr<:lne room and council chambers wcre fine paintings of see monsters of ali kincls. In the stal;les was a golden chariot, drawn by white horscs witl-r golclen mancs ancl hooves. In tl'ris Poseidon v.'ould ridc firrtl-r, carrying the three-pronged trident with u'hicl-r he had once threatened Cronus, and by which he is kntxvn Poseidon wished at first to marry the nereid Thetis, but he abandoned her u'hen l"re learned there u,as a prophecy that her first-born son would grow up to be greatcr than I'ris father. Such an idea was n()t ()ne u,hich a proud god lilie Poseidon could accept and hc marriecl instcacl another of Nereus's claughters, Amphitritc. Amphitrite bore Poseidon threc sons, but in spite of this, tlrey were n()t happy together. Poseidon u,as unfaithful to his u'ife and treated her in a rougl-r, unkindly $'ay. Abrx'c all, there v'as his burning z9 ambition, which took him far from home for belonged to Hera. This time Zeus could not make many months on end. Poseidon even begin to see reason. It was not long before Poseidon became 'It has been proved time and again that the gods discontented with his kingdom and his pov/er are against me,' Poseidon argued when his brother over the waves. He wanted to rule the land as suggested that the gods should once more sit in well, and soon turned his greedy eyes on the judgement to decide his claim. province of Attica, which included the great city 'The river gods are fair men,' said Zeus after a of Athens itself. To stake his claim on it, he while. 'Will you stand by what thel say?' drove his trident into the flat, rocky top of the Poseidon shrugged his massive shoulders. 'I Acropoiis, causing a spring of sea-water to gush suppose we can try,' he said grudgingly. He hoped out from the spot. that they would not dare to go against one who At that time the whole of Attica was under commanded waters so much more mighty than the protection of the goddess Athene, a daughter theirs. However, Inachus, Asterion and Cephissus, of Zeus, and therefore Poseidon's own niece' She the three river gods, were not afraid to give could not allow such an invasion of her territory judgement in Hera's favour. Once more Poseidon and to establish her own claim peacefully, she flew into a towering rage. planted an olive tree beside the spring. It took This time, instead of flooding the land, he root at once and was soon putting out new caused the rivers in which the gods lived to dry shoots and small, grey-green leaves. But the sea up, turning them into dusty, stony Pathv/ays and god only laughed at Athene. stranding the gods and river nymphs on the 'Only if you vanquish me in combat will I give withered banks. Only when the winter rains up what I have claimed,' he told her' He knew, came did the rivers flow again, and every summer of coutse, that he was far stronger than Athene since that time, they shrink and dwindle away. and that she would stand no chance in a struggle' All the animals of the ocean owed allegiance to Athene knew it too, but she agreed to fight' Poseidon, from the great whales to the smailest' However, the ever-watchful Zeus decided that coral fish. There were also less familiar creatures. he could not allow the combat to take place, and The nereids could sometimes be seen playing he brought the two immottals together to argue in the waves around their grotto home with their cases before a tribunal of the gods. The gods strange beings called Tritons. These had scaly and goddesses assembled in equal numbers to bodies and fins, and were half man, half fish' They decide whether Athene or Poseidon had given took their name from Poseidon's son Triton, Athens the more useful gift: the gods sided with who was himself half a man and half a fish. Poseidon, the goddesses with Athene. Zeus, as Though they played gently enough with the judge, had to stand aside from the argument and nereids, they could be fierce creatures and had was not allorved to vote: so the goddesses sharp teeth and hands with great hooked claws. prevailed by one vote and Athens was restored Sometimes they left the sea to invade the land, to Athene's care. spreading terror wherever they went' White with anger at being thwarted, Poseidon Proteus, son of Oceanus, was Poseidon's called up the seas to flood the land whete Athene herdsman and guardian of his seals. Each day lived, sending huge waves crashing over the they would sleep around him on a wide, flat- buildings of her own city, destroying her temple topped rock rvhile the midday sun shone down and the houses, farms and villages of her people. and waves lapped lazlly at the shore. It vras at From that time, Athene went to live in Athens, this time that those who wished to know what taking it into her special protection. the future held came to consult him, for he had Even after he had destroyed her home, Poseidon the gift of prophecy. Before Proteus would did not forgive Athene, nor was his ambition in speak, however, the questioner had to catch him, any w^y curbed. He next tried to seize the city of for Proteus had a thousand forms, and vzould Troezen from her, but Zeus once more intervened turn himself into anything he liked when a and ruled that they must share the produce of the stranger appeared. It might be a dragon or a lion, city. Unsatisfied, Poseidon tried unsuccessfully to or any fabulous beast.. Only if the stranger take the island of Aegina ftom Zeus himself, and showed he was not afraid, would Proteus become the island of Naxos from Zeus's son Dionysus. himself again and look into the strange world of Finally, he laid claim to some land which the future. j2 Malcolm Day