- Looks after
- The sea, earthquakes and horses
- Roman name
- Neptune
- Often shown with
- The trident, the horse, the dolphin.
Poseidon
Ποσειδῶν
Poseidon is the god of the sea, earthquakes and horses, and the brother of Zeus and Hades.
Poseidon is a son of Cronus and Rhea. When the three brothers divided the world by lot, he received the sea. He lives in a golden palace under the water, and carries a three-pronged trident that can shake the earth and stir the waves.
In the Odyssey he is Odysseus's enemy, because Odysseus blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, and so the journey home takes ten years. In Athens, he lost a contest with Athena over who would be patron of the city. He offered a salt spring (or a horse), she an olive tree, and the Athenians chose her. The scene was on the west pediment of the Parthenon.
He is also associated with horses, since in some stories he created the first horse, and with earthquakes, hence his titles Earth-Shaker and Enosichthon. Among his sanctuaries are the temple at Cape Sounion, and Isthmia, where games were held for him. His wife is Amphitrite, and his children include Triton, Theseus (in some accounts) and the horse Pegasus, whom Medusa bore after he lay with her.
In later art and language
The Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, built in the fifth century BCE, still stands above the sea south of Athens.
Ancient sources
- Hesiod, Theogony 453-458, 930-933
- Homer, Odyssey 1, 5, 9
- Herodotus 8.55
- Apollodorus, Library 3.14.1