Poseidon facts2/28/2023 ![]() We can assume that the extermination of so many of Poseidon’s wild sons by nobler heroes, as well as the loss of so many beloved places by God himself, are actually legends for the substitution of older forms of worship by redefined newer ones. Theological compositions and pre-Olympic forms of his worship are also intertwined.Įxperiences and memories of inhospitable places and barbarous peoples, including wild customs, incest, human sacrifices, and cannibalism among other things emphasized the characteristics of Poseidon’s wild sons. These include: the untamed nature of the sea, unpredictable natural hazards, extreme geological phenomena, his moody nature, and other earlier, similar gods whom Poseidon replaced. ![]() Even the Laistrygons and other barbarians, cannibals, savages, and godforsaken thieves of the Greek province were, as many said, seed of Poseidon.įigures linked to him are characteristic of the many features of Poseidon’s physiognomy, attributes, or phenomena of his domain and hypostases of his divinity. His other children include Polyphemus (of the Cyclops), Alebion, Tityos, Bergion, Otos, and Ephialtae (of the giants) among many other mythical creatures. When she was later beheaded by Perseus, Chrysaor and Pegasus, the mythical winged divine horse, emerged from her neck. She was then changed into a monster by Athena. Their child was a horse, Arion, capable of human speech. She spurned his advances, turning herself into a mare so that she could hide in a herd of horses, but he saw through the deception and became a stallion and captured and raped her. In an archaic myth, Poseidon once pursued his sister, Demeter. Poseidon was said to have had many lovers and many children, but not all of them were human. Poseidon often interfered in the plans of Zeus and once even attempted to overthrow his brother with the aid of Hera and Athena. He lived with his wife, Amphitrite, who was a beautiful sea nymph, along with his son, Triton, in a palace on the ocean floor which was made of coral and gems. When the three brothers deposed their father, the kingdom of the sea fell by lot to Poseidon. ![]() In this battle, the Olympians, the younger generation led by Zeus, defeated the Titans and overthrew Cronus. After Poseidon was rescued from Cronus by Zeus, he teamed up with him and his other siblings against Cronus and the Titans.Īlong with his siblings, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, Poseidon fought against Cronus and the other Titans in the Battle of the Gods known as Titanomachy. Poseidon was the second son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, so he is the eldest brother of Zeus and Hades. Polyphemos, the Cyclops, in the holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. This is not necessarily tied in with the invasion of other cultural or ethnic groups in the Greek mainland-according to older assumptions-who brought their own religious traditions. The rationalization of religious structures within the new political organization of the city-states was especially significant in this development. It must be pointed out that the subversion of chthonic deities is connected with socio-political changes that took place within the Greek world after the so-called Dark Ages. These present Poseidon as losing his sovereignty over disputed places after a conflict with other gods. ![]() Τhe limitation of the general Poseidon’s significance and the gradual undermining of his worship in the later Olympic pantheon is reflected both in the myths about the distribution of the power of the world in domains (Poseidon wins the domain of the sea) and, moreover, in the local cult traditions. If surviving Linear B records are reliable, the name po-se-da-wo-ne (Poseidon) is much more common than does di-u-ja (Zeus). This is something conveyed to us so far by indications related to the Mycenaean religious texts, where the worship of Poseidon appears to be quite strong and generally competes even with the worship of Zeus, clearly questioning its first position. The tracking of Poseidon in the maritime space is the last phase in the evolution of his physiognomy in the Greek pantheon and minimizes the prestige he seemed to have had in the proto-Olympian Greek religion. It was Poseidon who was also invoked by the Spartans every time they felt the earth shaking under their feet, as Xenophon describes the Lacedaemonian invasion of the land of the Argeans in 390 BC. This is also suggestive of his connection with the Underworld. ![]() Herodotus’ testimony conveys that he is the one who locks the Titans in the dark Tartarus. According to these facts, it seems that, initially, during the late Bronze Age Helladic civilizations, the Greek god, Poseidon, was mainly a chthonic deity and was mostly related to the earth as a fertility god or as a ruler or husband in the depths of the deified earth. ![]()
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