Poseidon was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker," of earthquakes in Greek mythology. Poseidon has many children. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena.
Poseidon was a major civic god of several cities: in Athens, he was second only to Athena in importance, while in Corinth and many cities of Magna Graecia he was the chief god of the polis. In his benign aspect, Poseidon was seen as creating new islands and offering calm seas. When offended or ignored, he supposedly struck the ground with his trident and caused chaotic springs, earthquakes, drownings and shipwrecks. Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a safe voyage, sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice; in this way, according to a fragmentary papyrus, Alexander the Great paused at the Syrian seashore before the climacteric battle of Issus, and resorted to prayers, "invoking Poseidon the sea-god, for whom he ordered a four-horse chariot to be cast into the waves."
According to Pausanias, Poseidon was one of the caretakers of the oracle at Delphi before Olympian Apollo took it over. Apollo and Poseidon worked closely in many realms: in colonization, for example, Delphic Apollo provided the authorization to go out and settle, while Poseidon watched over the colonists on their way, and provided the lustral water for the foundation-sacrifice. Xenophon's Anabasis describes a group of Spartan soldiers in 400–399 BCE singing to Poseidon a paean—a kind of hymn normally sung for Apollo.
Like Dionysus, who inflamed the maenads, Poseidon also caused certain forms of mental disturbance. A Hippocratic text of ca 400 BCE, On the Sacred Disease says that he was blamed for certain types of epilepsy.
If surviving Linear B clay tablets can be trusted, the name po-se-da-wo-ne ("Poseidon") occurs with greater frequency than does di-u-ja ("Zeus"). A feminine variant, po-se-de-ia, is also found, indicating a lost consort goddess, in effect a precursor of Amphitrite. Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two Queens and Poseidon" and to "the Two Queens and the King". The most obvious identification for the "Two Queens" is with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. The illuminating exception is the archaic and localised myth of the stallion Poseidon and mare Demeter at Phigalia in isolated and conservative Arcadia, noted by Pausanias (2nd century CE) as having fallen into desuetude; the violated Demeter was Demeter Erinys. In Mycenaean Knossos, Poseidon is already identified as "Earth-Shaker" (e-ne-si-da-o-ne), a powerful attribute (earthquakes had accompanied the collapse of the Minoan palace-culture). In the heavily sea-dependent Mycenaean culture, no connection between Poseidon and the sea has yet surfaced. Homer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea following the defeat of his father Kronos, when the world was divided by lot among his three sons; Zeus was given the sky, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the sea, with the Earth and Mount Olympus belonging to all three.
In any case, the early importance of Poseidon can still be glimpsed in Homer's Odyssey, where Poseidon rather than Zeus is the major mover of events.
Birth and triumph over Cronus
Poseidon was a son of Cronus and Rhea. In most accounts he is swallowed by Cronus at birth but later saved, with his other brothers and sisters, by Zeus. However in some versions of the story, he, like his brother Zeus, did not share the fate of his other brother and sisters who were eaten by Cronus. He was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which she gave to Cronus to devour. According to John Tzetzes the kourotrophos, or nurse of Poseidon was Arne, who denied knowing where he was, when Cronus came searching; according to Diodorus Siculus Poseidon was raised by the Telchines on Rhodes, just as Zeus was raised by the Korybantes on Crete.
According to a single reference in the Iliad, when the world was divided by lot in three, Zeus received the sky, Hades the underworld and Poseidon the sea. In the Odyssey, Poseidon has a home in Aegae.
The foundation of Athens
Athena became the patron goddess of the city of Athens after a competition with Poseidon. Yet Poseidon remained a numinous presence on the Acropolis in the form of his surrogate, Erechtheus. At the dissolution festival at the end of the year in the Athenian calendar, the Skira, the priests of Athena and the priest of Poseidon would process under canopies to Eleusis. They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and the Athenians would choose whichever gift they preferred. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a spring sprang up; the water was salty and not very useful, whereas Athena offered them an olive tree.
The Athenians or their king, Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and along with it Athena as their patron, for the olive tree brought wood, oil and food. After the fight, infuriated at his loss, Poseidon sent a monstrous flood to the Attic Plain, to punish the Athenians for not choosing him. The depression made by Poseidon's trident and filled with salt water was surrounded by the northern hall of the Erechtheum, remaining open to the air. "In cult, Poseidon was identified with Erechtheus," Walter Burkert noted; "the myth turns this into a temporal-causal sequence: in his anger at losing, Poseidon led his son Eumolpus against Athens and killed Erectheus."
The contest of Athena and Poseidon was the subject of the reliefs on the western pediment of the Parthenon, the first sight that greeted the arriving visitor.
The walls of Troy
Poseidon and Apollo, having offended Zeus, were sent to serve King Laomedon of Troy. He had them build huge walls around the city and promised to reward them well, a promise he then refused to fulfill. In vengeance, before the Trojan War, Poseidon sent a sea monster to attack Troy. The monster was later killed by Heracles.
Consorts and children
His consort was Amphitrite, a nymph and ancient sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus and Doris.
Poseidon was the father of many heroes. He is thought to have fathered the famed Theseus.
A mortal woman named Tyro was married to Cretheus (with whom she had one son, Aeson) but loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus, and from their union were born the heroes Pelias and Neleus, twin boys. Poseidon also had an affair with Alope, his granddaughter through Cercyon, his son and King of Eleusis, begetting the Attic hero Hippothoon. Cercyon had his daughter buried alive but Poseidon turned her into the spring, Alope, near Eleusis.
Poseidon rescued Amymone from a lecherous satyr and then fathered a child, Nauplius, by her.
After having raped Caeneus, Poseidon fulfilled her request and changed her into a male warrior.
Not all of Poseidon's children were human. In an archaic myth, Poseidon once pursued Demeter. She spurned his advances, turning herself into a mare so that she could hide in a herd of horses; he saw through the deception and became a stallion and captured her. Their child was a horse, Arion, which was capable of human speech. Poseidon also had sexual intercourse with Medusa on the floor of a temple to Athena. Medusa was then changed into a monster by Athena. When she was later beheaded by the hero Perseus, Chrysaor and Pegasus emerged from her neck. There is also Triton (the merman), Polyphemus (the cyclops) and, finally, Alebion and Bergion and Otos and Ephialtae (the giants).
In Plato's myth of Atlantis, Poseidon consorted with Cleito, daughter of the autochthons Evenor and Leucippe, and had by her ten sons: Ampheres, Atlas, Autochthon, Azaes, Diaprepes, Elasippus, Euaemon, Eumelus (Gadeirus), Mestor, Mneseus.
Male lovers of Poseidon
* Nerites
* Pelops
* Patroclus
Epithets
Poseidon was known in various guises, denoted by epithets. In the town of Aegae in Euboea, he was known as Poseidon Aegaeus and had a magnificent temple upon a hill. Poseidon also had a close association with horses, known under the epithet Poseidon Hippios. He is more often regarded as the tamer of horses, but in some myths he is their father, either by spilling his seed upon a rock or by mating with a creature who then gave birth to the first horse
In the historical period, Poseidon was often referred to by the epithets Enosichthon, Seischthon and Ennosigaios, all meaning "earth-shaker" and referring to his role in causing earthquakes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poseidon
From Men, Myths & Minds
Poseidon was powerful, decisive, competitive, and dignified. It was very important to stay on his "good side", for he was also moody and irascible, quick to take offense, and made a hobby out of taking his revenge out on those who angered him.
Punishing Odysseus for blinding his gigantic one-eyed son Cyclops (never mind that Cyclops and his gang had shipwrecked Odysseus and his crew, looted the ship, and were planning to eat them all!), Poseidon spend eight years getting even with him, causing earthquakes, storms at sea, and throwing horrendous sea monsters in his path.
Although most of the myths of Poseidon cast him in a negative light, either raping women or exacting retribution from his foes, he was also a deity who made the land fertile by providing its life-giving moisture and ensured the safety of the sailors who tilled the sea.
His name meant "Husband of the Earth", and as a consort to the Titan Great Goddess Gaia (Mother Earth), Poseidon was originally worshipped as a fertility god.
Like his brothers and sisters, Poseidon was born full grown. His father, the Titan god Cronus, fearing a prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, swallowed each of his newborn children to prevent the fulfillment of the prophecy. All that is except the sixth born Zeus, who was hidden away by their mother, the goddess Rhea, and grew up to liberate his siblings by tricking Cronus into drinking an emetic that made him vomit them out.
Understandably miffed with their father, his offspring immediately made plans to get even for the way they had been treated and began a battle to remove Cronus from his throne. They were helped in battle by their allies, the one-eyed Cyclopes, who gave Zeus his thunderbolts, Hades his cloak of invisibility, and Poseidon the trident (a three-pronged spear) that is his most renowned symbol.
After Poseidon and his brothers and sisters defeated the Titans and dethroned their father Cronus (Kronos), the Greek gods held a lottery to determine which of the realms each would rule. Hades drew the Underworld, Poseidon won the oceans, and Zeus got the heavens, making him the supreme ruler. They agree to all share the power over the earth, though the greatest responsibility for it went to Poseidon.
As dignified as the powerful Zeus, Poseidon at once began building a magnificent underwater palace and outfitted its stables with golden-maned white horses that would draw his golden chariot across the seas.
In the first years of his rule, the young Zeus proved to be an impetuous and arrogant ruler, and everyone was rather displeased with his performance. Poseidon, never quite satisfied with playing "second fiddle" to his brother, recruited the others to overthrow the government. They did manage to capture and immobilize Zeus, but he quickly managed to escape and foil their plot. For punishment Poseidon was banished from his home. He and Apollo were sentenced to a year of manual labor building the great wall around Troy while working disguised as a mortals.
The king of Troy had promised to pay the gods with vines of gold when the wall was finished but failed to keep his end of the bargain. Poseidon was infuriated and sent a sea monster to punish the city, but the monster was killed by Heracles (Hercules).
But Poseidon could hold a grudge for a long time. During the Trojan war Poseidon was delighted to fight on the side of the Greeks. In an act of kindness (or perhaps he just had a keen eye for talent), he spared the life of the young warrior Aenas by hiding him away so that he would live to rule the Trojans in the future.
Poseidon was an honorable god -- you knew exactly where he stood of things, and when he gave his word he kept it. He had no time for those whose word could no be relied upon. When the king of Crete requested a gift from Poseidon, a fine bull to sacrifice, Poseidon generously sent him the very finest from his herd, so fine in fact that King Minos decided to keep it himself instead of sacrificing it. Poseidon was angry and caused the king's wife to fall in love with the bull. The eventual outcome of their love affair was the birth of a child, half-bull and half-human called the Minotaur. The monster had to be kept in the center of the labyrinth below the king's palace.
Never quite satisfied with what he already had, Poseidon was always looking to expand his domain. Consequently he was often quarrelling and competing with the other Olympians. He rarely won these disputes.
One of the most notorious episodes was his quarrel with the goddess Athena over who would "rule" the city of Athens. It was decided that there would be a competition and the one who gave the finest present to the people of the city would win. Poseidon stuck his trident (spear) into a rock, which split open and began to spew out water. Athena gave them an olive tree.
Unfortunately for Poseidon the spring water was brackish and not much use, so Athena won. Angry with the citizens’ decision, Poseidon flooded the plains surrounding the city.
Another dispute over land, this one with the goddess Hera, was to prove to be both lengthy and acrimonious, hastening the establishment of the patriarchal system of government in Greece. Poseidon challenged Hera's claim to the city of Argos, Hera's hometown and the center of her worship. The dispute eventually had to be settled by a tribunal of the Olympian deities.
The vote was close, with only one vote deciding the outcome...since there were four goddesses (and all voted with Hera), and only three votes (by the gods) for Poseidon, he felt that the deck had been "stacked against him".
Holding a grudge, Poseidon dried up all the rivers surrounding the city and refused to let them flow again until the laws were changed so that women lost their right to vote!
He did make one exception, however, and restored one river, the home of a river goddess who had once done him a favor.
On the subject of Poseidon and his relationships with women . . . not a pretty picture. It is understandable that, as a fertility god, Poseidon would be every bit as lusty and sexually insatiable as his brother Zeus, if not more so. They both had numerous affairs and a great number of children resulted from their liaisons. But there was a difference. When Zeus desired a woman he usually made an effort to seduce her, either by courting her affection or by trickery. Poseidon, however, always used outright physical force to get his way.
As a fertility god, Poseidon's spear symbolized his instinctual, primal, sexual energy and ability to impregnate. Poseidon was unsuccessful in his attempt to subjugate the virgin goddess Athena, the Greek goddess of war, who was able to physically repel him. In his attempt, however he spilt his semen on the ground and a child grew from it. Athena graciously agreed to provide a home for the child.
Still smarting from Athena's rejection, Poseidon found solace in the willing arms of the hauntingly beautiful Medusa. They made love in the temple of Athena (no doubt to spite her for having scorned him). Athena, furious over the defilement of her temple, turned Medusa into a hideous monster with writhing snakes in place of her hair.
Perhaps the most infamous of Poseidon's rapes was when he pursued the goddess Demeter when she was distraught and full of grief, searching for her daughter who had just been abducted. Discovering that she had turned herself into a mare and hidden inside a herd of horses to escape his unwanted advances, Poseidon simply transformed himself into a stallion and mounted her.
Poseidon eventually did manage to fall in love. As he watched the sea goddess dancing something stirred in him . . . yes, the usual sexual urges, but something else as well, something sensitive and tender. Never having learned any other way to approach a woman he desired, he used his usual methods. The devastated Amphitrite fled and hid herself from him at the bottom of the sea.
Suddenly Poseidon realized that he had lost something truly special, the opportunity for union with a woman that was more than just physical. Even though he searched everywhere, he could not find her, and he was filled with sadness and a great sense of loss. His friend, Delphinus (Dolphin), volunteered to find her and plead Poseidon's case. And he succeeded, convincing Amphitrite of Poseidon's love and wish to make her his wife and the Queen of the Seas.
Amphitrite was touched and returned with the Dolphin to marry Poseidon. She eventually bore two of his children. His son Triton rode with Poseidon in his chariot across the seas, trumpeting a sea shell to announce Poseidon's arrival wherever they went.
Unfortunately, Poseidon soon returned to his womanizing, and there are many legends of the vengeance Amphitrite wreaked upon Poseidon's girlfriends. Jealous of Poseidon's attraction to the lovely Scylla, Amphitrite threw magical herbs into the water while Scylla was bathing, turning her into a hideous sea-monster with six heads, three rows of teeth, and 12 feet. Scylla was consigned to snatch sailors off their ships for her meals, and was greatly feared by all sea-going men.
Although most of the stories of Poseidon recount his amorous activities or his acts of revenge, he obviously had a peaceful side as well. He offered protection to sailors, dried up lakes and rivers when needed to reclaim land for the building of cities, and continued to bless the land with fertile soil so that crops could grow.
Before setting out to sea, ancient mariners would pray and make offerings to the Greek god Poseidon, hoping to insure a safe and profitable journey. With the approach of Poseidon in his chariot, raging storms would calm, and the sea-monsters would rise to the surface swimming playfully around his chariot.
However difficult and tumultuous Poseidon might have been, he reminds us to stay connected to the deep emotional and instinctual parts of our selves, however uncomfortable, or even painful it might be.
Copyright©2002-2006 The Goddess Path
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