Poseidon in Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
（Ποσειδῶν), the god of the Mediterranean sea. His name
seems to be connected with πότος, πόντος and ποταμός,
according to which he is the god of the fluid element.
(Müller, Proleg. p. 290.) He was a son of Cronos and Rhea
(whence he is called Κρόνιος and by Latin poets Saturnius,
Pind. O. 6.48; Verg. A. 5.799.) He was accordingly a brother
of Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter, and it was
determined by lot that he should rule over the sea. (Hom.
Il. 14.156, 15.187, &c.; Hes. Theog, 456.) Like his brothers
and sisters, he was, after his birth, swallowed by his
father Cronos, but thrown up again. (Apollod. 1.1.5, 2.1.)
According to others, he was concealed by Rhea, after his
birth, among a flock of lambs, and his mother pretended to
have given birth to a young horse, which she gave to Cronos
to devour. A well in the neighbourhood of Mantineia, where
this is said to have happened, was believed, from this
circumstance, to have derived the name of the "Lamb's Well,"
or Arne. (Paus. 8.8.2.) According to Tzetzes (ad Lycoph.
644) the nurse of Poseidon bore the name of Arne; when
Cronos searched after his son, Arne is said to have declared
that she knew not where he was, and from her the town of
Arne was believed to have received its name. According to
others, again, he was brought up by the Telchines at the
request of Rhea. (Diod. 5.55.) In the earliest poems,
Poseidon is described as indeed equal to Zeus in dignity,
but weaker. (Hom. Il. 8.210, 15.165, 186, 209; comp. 13.355,
Od. 13.148.) Hence we find him angry when Zeus, by haughty
words, attempts to intimidate him; nay, he even threatens
his mightier brother, and once he conspired with Hera and
Athena to put him into chains (Hom. Il. 15.176, &c., 212,
&c.; comp. 1.400.); but, on the other hand, we also find him
yielding and submissive to Zeus (8.440). The palace of
Poseidon was in the depth of the sea near Aegae in Euboea
(13.21; Od. 5.381), where he kept his horses with brazen
hoofs and golden manes. With these horses he rides in a
chariot over the waves of the sea, which become smooth as he
appreaches, and the monsters of the deep recognise him and
play around his chariot. (Il. 13.27, comp. Verg. A. 5.817,
&c., 1.147; Apollon. 3.1240, &c.) Generally he himself put
his horses to his chariot, but sometimes he was assisted by
Amphitrite. (Apollon. 1.1158, 4.1325; Eur. Andr. 1011; Verg.
A. 5.817.) But although he generally dwelt in the sea, still
he also appears in Olympus in the assembly of the gods.
(Hom. Il. 8.440, 13.44, 352, 15.161, 190, 20.13.) Poseidon
in conjunction with Apollo is said to have built the walls
of Troy for Laomedon (7.452; Eurip. Androm. 1014),whence
Troy is called Neptunia Pergama (Neptunus and Poseidon being
identified, Ov. Fast. 1.525, Heroid. 3.151; comp. Verg. A.
6.810.) Accordingly, although he was otherwise well disposed
towards the Greeks, yet he was jealous of the wall which the
Greeks built around their own ships, and he lamented the
inglorious manner in which the walls erected by himself fell
by the hands of the Greeks. (Hom. Il. 12.17, 28, &c.) When
Poseidon and Apollo had built the walls of Troy, Laomedon
refused to give them the reward which had been stipulated,
and even dismissed them with threats (21.443); but Poseidon
sent a marine monster, which was on the point of devouring
Laomedon's daughter, when it was killed by Heracles. 2.5 §
9.) For this reason Poseidon like Hera bore an implacable
hatred against the Trojans, from which not even Aeneas was
excepted (Hom. Il. 20.293, &c.; comp. Verg. A. 5.810; Il.
21.459, 24.26, 20.312, &c.), and took an active part in the
war against Troy, in which he sided with the Greeks,
sometimes witnessing the contest as a spectator from the
heights of Thrace, and sometimes interfering in person,
assuming the appearance of a mortal hero and encouraging the
Greeks, while Zeus favoured the Trojans. (Il. 13.12, &c.,
44, &c., 209, 351, 357, 677, 14.136, 510.) When Zeus
permitted the gods to assist whichever party they pleased,
Poseidon joining the Greeks, took part in the war, and
caused the earth to tremble; he was opposed by Apollo, who,
however, did not like to fight against his uncle. (Il.
20.23, 34, 57, 67, 21.436, &c.) In the Odyssey, Poseidon
appears hostile to Odysseus, whom he prevents from returning
home in consequence of his having blinded Polyphemus, a son
of Poseidon by the nymph Thoosa. (Hom. Od. 1.20, 68, 5.286,
&c., 366, &c., 423, 11.101, &e., 13.125; Ov. Tr. 1.2. 9.)
Being the ruler of the sea (the Mediterranean), he is
described as gathering clouds and calling forth storms, but
at the same he has it in his power to grant a successful
voyage and save those who are in danger, and all other
marine divinities are subject to him. As the sea surrounds
and holds the earth, he himself is described as the god who
holds the earth (γαιήοχος), and who has it in his power to
shake the earth (ενοσίχθων, κινητὴρ γᾶς). He was further
regarded as the creator of the horse, and was accordingly
believed to have taught men the art of managing horses by
the bridle, and to have been the originator and protector of
horse races. (Hom. Il. 23.307, 584; Pind. P. 6.50 ; Soph.
Oed. Col. 712, &c.) Hence he was also represented on
horseback, or riding in a chariot drawn by two or four
horses, and is designated by the epithets ἵππιος, ἵππειος,
or ἵππιος ἄναξ. (Paus. 1.30.4, 8.25.5, 6.20.8, 8.37.7 ; Eur.
Phoen. 1707; comp. Liv. 1.9, where he is called equester.)
In consequence of his connection with the horse, he was
regarded as the friend of charioteers (Pind. O. 1.63, &c.;
Tzetz. ad Lyc. 156), and he even metamorphosed himself into
a horse, for the purpose of deceiving Demeter. The common
tradition about Poseidon creating the horse is as follows :
-- when Poseidon and Athena disputed as to which of them
should give the name to the capital of Attica, the gods
decided, that it should receive its name from him who should
bestow upon man the most useful gift. Poseidon their created
the horse, and Athena called forth the olive tree, for which
the honour was conferred upon her. (Serv. ad Virg. Georg.
1.12.) According to others, however, Poseidon did not create
the horse in Attica, but in Thessaly, where he also gave the
famous horses to Peleus. (Lucan, PPhars. 6.396, &c.; Hom.
Il. 23.277; Apollod. 3.13.5.)
The symbol of Poseidon's power was the trident, or a spear
with three points, with which he used to shatter rocks, to
call forth or subdue storms, to shake the earth, and the
like. Herodotus (2.50, 4.188) states, that the name and
worship of Poseidon was imported to the Greeks from Libya,
but he was probably a divinity of Pelasgian origin, and
originally a personification of the fertilising power of
water, from which the transition to regarding him as the god
of the sea was not difficult. It is a remarkable
circumstance that in the legends about this divinity there
are many in which he is said to have disputed the possession
of certain countries with other gods. Thus, in order to take
possession of Attica, he thrust his trident into the ground
on the acropolis, where a well of sea-water was thereby
called forth; but Athena created the olive tree, and the two
divinities disputed, until the gods assigned Attica to
Athena. Poseidon, indignant at this, caused the country to
be inundated. (Hdt. 8.55; Apollod. 3.14.1 ; Paus. 1.24.3,
&c.; Hyg. Fab. 164.) With Athena he also disputed the
possession of Troezene, and at the command of Zeus he shared
the place with her. (Paus. 2.30.6 ) With Helios he disputed
the sovereignty of Corinth, which along with the isthmus was
adjudged to him, while Helios received the acropolis.
(2.1.6.) With Hera he disputed the possession of Argolis,
which was adjudged to the former by Inachus, Cephissus, and
Asterion, in consequence of which Poseidon caused the rivers
of these river-gods to be dried up. (2.15.5, 22.5; Apollod.
2.1.4.) With Zeus, lastly, he disputed the possession of
Aegina, and with Dionysus that of Naxos. (Plut. Sympos.
9.6.) At one time Delphi belonged to him in common with Ge,
but Apollo gave him Calauria as a compensation for it.
(Paus. 2.33.2, 10.5.3; Apollon. 3.1243, with the Schol.) The
following legends also deserve to be mentioned. In
conjunction with Zeus he fought against Cronos and the
Titans (Apollod. 1.2.1), and in the contest with the Giants
he pursued Polybotes across the sea as far as Cos, and there
killed him by throwing the island upon him. (Apollod. 1.6.2;
Paus. 1.2.4.) He further crushed the Centaurs when they were
pursued by Heracles, under a mountain in Leucosia, the
island of the Seirens. (Apollod. 2.5.4.) He sued together
with Zeus for the hand of Thetis, but he withdrew when
Themis prophesied that the son of Thetis would be greater
than his father. (Apollod. 3.13.5; Tzetz. ad Lyc. 178.) When
Ares had been caught in the wonderful net by Hephaestus, the
latter set him free at the request of Poseidon (Hom. Od.
8.344, &c.), but Poseidon afterwards brought a charge
against Ares before the Areiopagus, for having killed his
son Halirrhothius. (Apollod. 3.14.2.) At the request of
Minos, king of Crete, Poseidon caused a bull to rise from
the sea, which the king promised to sacri fice; but when
Minos treacherously concealed the animal among a herd of
oxen, the god punished Minos by causing his daughter
Pasiphae to fall in love with the bull. (Apollod. 3.3, &c.)
Periclymenus, who was either a son or a grandson of
Poseidon, received from him the power of as-suming various
forms. (1.9.9, 3.6.8.)
Poseidon was married to Amphitrite, by whom he had three
children, Triton, Rhode, and Benthesicyme (Hes. Th. 930;
Apollod. 1.4.6, 3.15.4); but he had besides a vast number of
children by other divinities and mortal women. He is
mentioned by a variety of surnames, either in allusion to
the many legends related about him, or to his nature as the
god of the sea. His worship extended over all Greece and
southern Italy, but he was more especially revered in
Peloponnesus (which is hence called οἰκητήριον Ποσειδῶνος)
and in the Ionic coast towns. The sacrifices offered to him
generally consisted of black and white bulls (Hom. Od. 3.6,
Il. 20.404; Pind. O. 13.98; Verg. A. 5.237); but wild boars
and rams were also sacrificed to him. (Hom. Od. 11.130, &c.,
23.277; Verg. A. 3.119.) In Argolis bridled horses were
thrown into the well Deine as a sacrifice to him (Paus.
8.7.2), and horse and chariot races were held in his honour
on the Corinthian isthmus. (Pind. N. 5.66, &c.) The
Panionia, or the festival of all the lonians near Mycale,
was celebrated in honour of Poseidon. (Hdt. 1.148.) In works
of art, Poseidon may be easily recognised by his attributes,
the dolphin, the horse, or the trident (Paus. 10.36.4), and
he was frequently represented in groups along with
Amphitrite, Tritons, Nereids, dolphins, the Dioscuri,
Palaemon, Pegasus, Bellerophontes, Thalassa, Ino, and
Galene. (Paus. 2.1.7.) His figure does not present the
majestic calm which characterises his brother Zeus; but as
the state of the sea is varying, so also is the god
represented sometimes in violent agitation, and sometimes in
a state of repose. (Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. i. p. 26.) It
must be observed that the Romans identified Poseidon with
their own Neptunus, and that accordingly the attributes
belonging to the former are constantly transferred by the
Latin poets to the latter. - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman
biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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