Poseidon and the Sea Deities (Lecture Slides 7)

Poseidon (Neptune to the Romans)

recognized by his trident; hes also a mature male with a full beard; and he has a chariot of
horses
character: very unpredictable, dangerous, and serious
Odysseus: Polyphemus (son of Poseidon) pursues Odysseus at the end of the Trojan War
Argos: city of Argos has a temple of Hera (shes the main goddess); there was a contest
between Hera and Poseidon and Poseidon lost, so he dried up all the rivers of Argos
Athens: he was also rejected to be the patron god of Athens, so he flooded the lowlands of
Athens
concerns:
the sea (hes the god of the sea) some people say he chose the sea while other says
that lots were cast; when people sail or go fishing, they make sacrifices to Poseidon
earthquakes (hes also the god of earthquakes) one of his epithets is Earth
Shaker; some people say hes the god of uncontrollable natural forces
horses (hes the god of horses) one of his epithets is Poseidon Hippios where
Hippios means horse
horses were sacrificed to Poseidon
myth: he became enamored with Demeter (she was wandering the earth looking for her
daughter Persephone), and Poseidon started to chase her, and she turns herself to a horse,
Poseidon also turns himself into a horse, and they produced the divine horse Ophion (sp?)
myth: he also mated with Medusa (when she was in horse form), and they made Pegasus
he has a chariot of horses with fish tails
people wonder why hes associated with horses; some think that when the Greeks came down
from the north, they brought horses and the people they conquered didnt have horses; and their
main god was Poseidon
patronage (support) problems:
loses to Hera at Argos
loses to Athena at Athens and Troezen
loses to Helius and Corinth
loses to Apollo at Delphi
loses to Zeus at Aegina
loses to Dionysus at Naxos
why is he made the antagonist? maybe its because hes so destructive and unpredictable and
no one wants this god to be their patron
Other Sea Deities
Original Sea Deities

Pontus: Hesiod tells us there were the four primal elements; Pontus was produced by Gaia
asexually; Pontus is one of these four primal elements (the Sea)
Oceanus and Tethys (titans): Oceanus is the river who goes all the way around the known
world and he fathered many sea deities with his wife Tethys; became the parents of Oceanids
Nereus (old man of the sea): offspring of Gaia and Pontus; considered very wise and very
benevolent; very mysterious; shapeshifter

Proteus; also known as the old man of sea similar to Nereus, just with different
names
Triton: known as the son of Poseidon; original merman; he can calm or rouse the waves with his
conch shell
Later Generations

Nereids: offspring of Nereus and an Oceanid named Doris; pretty and benevolent sea goddess
Amphitrite: became the wife of Poseidon, had the same dynamic as Hera and Zeus (ie.
Poseidon will cheat on Amphitrite, and Amphitrite will nag him, etc.)
Thetis: mother of Achilles; rescued Zeus when he was tied up by some of the other gods; also
the one who got Zeus to favour Achilles during the Trojan war
there was a prophecy which said that Thetis will produce a son more powerful than his father;
Zeus liked Thetis; Prometheus was keeping this prophecy a secret, but Zeus eventually got it
out of him; Zeus stayed away from Thetis and married him to a mortal; and they produced
Achilles
Galatea: beautiful and kindly
there was a story where she became the object of Polyphemus affections; but she didnt like
Polyphemus and liked Asus instead (a river god); so when Polyphemus realized that Galatea
didnt like him, so he ripped out the top of a mountain and threw it at Asus; Asus was crushed
but his blood became a river and so he became a river god
Oceanids:
3000 rivers (male Oceanids); Hesiod said that no one knows the name of all of them, but the
people who lived near the rivers
River Scamander: tried to kill Achilles
River Achelous: fought with Heracles over a woman, and Achelous was changing shapes during
the fight, and Heracles grabbed him by the horns as Achelous was changing from a great
serpent to a bull
3000 nymphs (female Oceanids); symbolized by the trees and the fields
Monsters:
offsprings of Phorcys and Ceto (they themselves are offsprings of Pontus and Gaia; primal sea
deities):
Graeae (old woman - one tooth and one eye shared between them)
Gorgons (heads of snakes and turns men to stone like Medusa and her two sisters)
Ladon the Dragon (guarded the garden of Hesperides where Heracles has to gather apples
from)
offsprings of Poseidon and Medusa
Chrysaor and Pegasus; Pegasus isnt a typical monster since hes a winged horse and not what
we typically called a monster; but in Ancient Greek a monster is something that is a mixture of
two completely different things
later descendants of various sea deities/monsters:
Geryon (has three bodies)
Cerberus (has three heads and has snakes as tails)
Echidna
Hydra (monster with nine heads, one of which was immortal; Heracles has to deal with the
Hydra)
Sphinx (Oedipus had to kill the Sphinx)

this furthers the claim that the sea is very unpredictable and changing all the time