Poseidon
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This
article is about the Greek god. For other uses, see Poseidon (disambiguation).
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Poseidon
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 Poseidon from Milos, 2nd century BCE (National Archaeological Museum of Athens) |
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God of the Sea, Earthquakes and Horses
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Abode
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Symbol
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Consort
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Parents
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Siblings
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Children
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Roman equivalent
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Poseidon (Greek: Ποσειδῶν) was the god of the sea, and, as
"Earth-Shaker,"[1] of the earthquakes in Greek mythology.[2] The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscanwas adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology:
both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was
venerated at Pylos andThebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age
Greece, but he was integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades.[2] Poseidon has many children. There is aHomeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of
many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena.
Contents
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6 Notes
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Etymology
The earliest attested
occurrence of the name, written in Linear B,
is Po-se-da-o or Po-se-da-wo-ne,
which correspond to Poseidaōn and Poseidawonos in Mycenean Greek;
in Homeric Greek it appears as Ποσειδάων (Poseidaōn); in Aeolic as Ποτειδάων (Poteidaōn); and in Doric as Ποτειδάν (Poteidan), Ποτειδάων (Poteidaōn), andΠοτειδᾶς (Poteidas).[3] A common epithet of Poseidon is Γαιήοχος Gaiēochos,
"Earth-shaker," an epithet which is also identified in Linear B
tablets.[4]
The origins of the name
"Poseidon" are unclear. One theory breaks it down into an element
meaning "husband" or "lord" (Greek πόσις (posis), from PIE *pótis) and another element
meaning "earth" (δᾶ (da), Doric for γῆ (gē)), producing
something like lord or spouse of Da,
i.e. of the earth; this would link him with Demeter,
"Earth-mother."[5] Walter Burkert finds that "the second element da- remains hopelessly ambiguous" and
finds a "husband of Earth" reading "quite impossible to
prove."[2]Another
theory interprets the second element as related to the word *δᾶϜον dawon,
"water"; this would make *Posei-dawōn into the master of waters.[6] There is also the possibility that the
word has Pre-Greek origin.[7] Plato in his dialogue Cratylus gives
two alternative etymologies: either the sea restrained Poseidon when walking as
a foot-bond (ποσί-δεσμον), or he knew many things (πολλά εἰδότος
or πολλά εἰδῶν).[8]
Worship of Poseidon
Poseidon
holding a trident. Corinthian plaque, 550-525 BC. From Penteskouphia. From
Penteskouphia.
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.[2]
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 tridentand
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."[9]
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[10]says
that he was blamed for certain types of epilepsy.
Bronze Age Greece
Poseidon,
Paella Museum
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
Demeter and Poseidon's names
are linked in one Pylos tablet, where they appear as po-se-da-wo-ne and da-ma-te,
in the context of sacralized lot-casting.[citation needed]
Given Poseidon's connection
with horses as well as the sea, and the landlocked situation of the likely
Indo-European homeland, Nobuo Komita has proposed that Poseidon was originally
an aristocratic Indo-European horse-god who was then assimilated to Near
Eastern aquatic deities when the basis of the Greek livelihood shifted from the
land to the sea, or a god of fresh waters who was assigned a secondary role as
god of the sea, where he overwhelmed the original Aegean sea deities such as Proteus and Nereus.[14] Conversely, Walter Burkert suggests
that the Hellene cult worship of Poseidon as a horse god may be connected to
the introduction of the horse and war-chariot from Anatolia to Greece
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.
Poseidon in mythology
Andrea
Doria as Neptune , byAngelo Bronzino
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.[15] According to John Tzetzes[16] the kourotrophos,
or nurse of Poseidon was Arne,
who denied knowing where he was, when Cronus came searching; according to Diodorus Siculus[17] Poseidon was raised by the Telchines on Rhodes, just asZeus 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 (v.398), 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.[2] 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.[18] 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,[19] 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, oiland
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."[20]
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.
This myth is construed by Robert Graves and others as reflecting a clash
between the inhabitants during Mycenaean times and newer immigrants. It is
interesting to note that Athens at its height
was a significant sea power, at one point defeating the Persian fleet at Salamis Island in a sea battle.
The
walls of Troy
Poseidon and Apollo, having
offended Zeus, were sent to serve King Laomedon of Troy Troy
Consorts
and children
Poseidon
on an Attic kalyx krater (detail), first half of the 5th
century BCE
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 withAlope, 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
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 (thegiants).[21]
List
of Poseidon's consorts and children
Epithets
Poseidon was known in various
guises, denoted by epithets. In the town of Aegae[disambiguation
needed] in Euboea, he was
known as Poseidon Aegaeus and had a magnificent temple upon a
hill.[44][45][46] 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.[2]
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.
Poseidon in literature and art
Jacob de Gheyn
II: Neptune and Amphitrite
In Greek art,
Poseidon rides a chariot that was pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could ride on the
sea. He was associated with dolphins and three-pronged fish spears(tridents).
He lived in a palace on the ocean floor, made of coral and gems.
In the Iliad Poseidon favors the Greeks, and on
several occasion takes an active part in the battle against the Trojan forces.
However, in Book XX he rescues Aeneas after the Trojan prince is laid low by Achilles.
In the Odyssey,
Poseidon is notable for his hatred of Odysseus who blinded the god's son, the cyclops Polyphemus.
The enmity of Poseidon prevents Odysseus's return home toIthaca for many years. Odysseus is even told,
notwithstanding his ultimate safe return, that to placate the wrath of Poseidon
will require one more voyage on his part.
In the Aeneid,
Neptune is still resentful of the wandering Trojans, but is not as vindictive
as Juno,
and in Book I he rescues the Trojan fleet from the goddess's attempts to wreck
it, although his primary motivation for doing this is his annoyance at Juno's
having intruded into his domain.
A hymn to Poseidon included
among the Homeric Hymns is a brief invocation, a seven-line
introduction that addresses the god as both "mover of the earth and barren
sea, god of the deep who is also lord of Helicon and wide Aegae[disambiguation
needed],[47] and specificies his twofold nature as
an Olympian: "a tamer of horses and a saviour of ships."
Narrations
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Poseidon myths as told by story tellers
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Bibliography
of reconstruction: Homer, Odyssey, 11.567 (7th c. BC); Pindar, Olympian Odes, 1 (476 BC); Euripides, Orestes, 12–16 (408 BC); Apollodorus, Epitomes 2: 1–9 (140 BC); Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI: 213, 458 (AD 8); Hyginus, Fables, 82: Tantalus; 83: Pelops (1st c.
AD); Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.22.3 (AD 160 – 176)
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Bibliography
of reconstruction: Pindar, Olympian Ode, I (476 BCE); Sophocles,
(1) Electra, 504 (430 – 415 BCE) & (2) Oenomaus, Fr. 433 (408 BCE); Euripides, Orestes,1024–1062 (408 BCE); Apollodorus, Epitomes 2, 1–9 (140 BCE); Diodorus
Siculus, Histories, 4.73 (1st c. BCE); Hyginus, Fables, 84: Oinomaus; Poetic Astronomy, ii (1st c. CE); Pausanias, Description of Greece, 5.1.3 – 7; 5.13.1; 6.21.9; 8.14.10 –
11 (c. CE 160 – 176); Philostratus the Elder Imagines, I.30: Pelops (CE 170 – 245); Philostratus the Younger, Imagines, 9: Pelops (c. 200 – 245); First Vatican Mythographer, 22:
Myrtilus; Atreus et Thyestes; Second Vatican Mythographer, 146:
Oenomaus
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Gallery
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Poseidon
statue inGothenburg, Sweden.
§
§
§
The Neptunbrunnenfountain
in Berlin
Notes
1.
^ Modern Greek media
(e.g. "The Pacific: A history full of
earthquakes" Ta Nea,
2011) and scholars (e.g. Koutouzis, Vassilis Volcanoes and Earthquakes in Troizinia)
do not metaphorically refer to Poseidon but instead to Enceladus, the chief of the ancient Giants, to denote earthquakes in
Greece.
2.
^ a b c d e f g h Burkert, Walter (1985). Greek
Religion. Cambridge , MA :
Harvard University
3.
^ Martin Nilsson. Die
Geschichte der Griechische Religion. Erster Band Verlag C. H. Beck. p 444. Also
Beekes entry "Poseidwn"
4.
^ Liddell & Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, Ποσειδῶν.
5.
^ Pierre Chantraine Dictionnaire etymologique de la
langue grecque Paris 1974-1980 4th s.v.; Lorenzo Rocci Vocabolario Greco-Italiano Milano, Roma, Napoli
1943 (1970） s.v.
6.
^ Martin Nilsson p.417,
p.445. Also Beekes entry: "Poseidwn"
9.
^ Papyrus Oxyrrhincus FGH 148,
44, col. 2; quoted by Robin Lane Fox, Alexander
the Great (1973) 1986:168 and
note. Alexander also invoked other sea deities: Thetis, mother of
his hero Achilles, Nereusand the Nereids
11.
^ Pausanias VIII 23. 5;
Raymond Bloch "Quelques remarques sur Poseidon, Neptunus et Nethuns"
inRevue de l' Histoire des Religions 1981
p. 345
12.
^ Adams,
Professor John Paul. "Mycenaean
Divinities". List of Handouts for Classics 315. Retrieved 2 September 2006.
13.
^ Hesiod, Theogony 456.
14.
^ Komita,
"Poseidon the horse-god and the early Indo-Europeans", Research Reports of Ikutoku Tech.
University, 1985; Komita,
"The Indo-European attribute of Poseidon was a water-god", Research Reports of the Kanagawa
Institute of Technology, 1990.
15.
^ In the 2nd century CE,
a well with the name of Arne,
the "lamb's well", in the neighbourhood ofMantineia in Arcadia,
where old traditions lingered, was shown to Pausanias. (Pausanias viii.8.2.)
16.
^ Tzetzes, ad Lycophron 644.
17.
^ Diodorus, v. 55.
18.
^ Burkert, Walter (1983). Homo
Necans. Berkeley
and Los Angeles : University of California
19.
^ Another version of the
myth says that Poseidon gave horses to Athens.[citation needed]
20.
^ Burkert, Walter (1983). Homo
Necans. Berkeley
and Los Angeles : University of California
21.
^ Gill , N.S.
27.
^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Dyrrhakhion
28.
^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Mytilene
29.
^ Stephanus of Byzantium, s. v. Astakos, with a
reference to Arrian
30.
^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Torōnē
32.
^ Scholia on Theocritus,
Idyll 7. 76
34.
^ Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 21. 1
35.
^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Kalaureia
37.
^ Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Dikaia
38.
^ Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2. 5. 10
41.
^ Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers, 11. 1
43.
^ Ptolemy Hephaestion, New History, 1 in Photius,
190
45.
^ Virgil, Aeneid iii. 74, where Servius erroneously derives the name from the Aegean Sea
46.
^ Schmitz,
Leonhard (1867). "Aegaeus".
In Smith, William. Dictionary of
Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston
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