- Looks after
- The deep sea
Pontus
Πόντος
Pontus is the open sea, born from Gaia alone, and the father of a line of sea creatures and sea gods.
Pontus means the sea, in particular the open deep. Gaia bore him by herself, as she bore the mountains. Hesiod gives him no myths of his own and treats him as a source of descent.
With Gaia he fathers Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, who is truthful and gentle and the father of the fifty Nereids; Thaumas, father of Iris and the Harpies; Phorcys and Ceto, the parents of many sea monsters; and Eurybia, who marries the Titan Crius.
In classical times the word survived as a place name. The Greeks called the Black Sea the Pontos Euxeinos, the hospitable sea.
In later art and language
The geographical name Pontic, as in the Pontic Steppe, comes from the Greek name for the Black Sea.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 131-132, 233-239