POSEIDON, the ancient Greek god of the sea and of water generally, was fabled to be the son of Cronus and Rhea, and brother of Zeus and Pluto. When the three brothers deposed their father Cronus the kingdom of the sea fell by lot to Poseidon. With his wife, Amphitrite, he dwelt in the depths of the sea; at Aegae he had a golden house beneath the waves. In his hand he bore a trident (a three-pronged fish-spear), wherewith he lashed the sea into fury. But, while he caused storms and shipwrecks, he could also send favouring winds. He was the god of navigation, adored by all who sailed the sea. His temples stood especially on headlands and isthmuses. As god of the sea he disputed with other deities for the possession of the land—with Athene for Athens and Troezen, with Helios for Corinth, with Hera for Argos, with Zeus for Aegina, àc. Earthquakes were thought to be produced by Poseidon shaking the earth,—hence his epithet of “Earth-shaker,” and hence he was worshipped even in inland places, like Apamea in Phrygia, which had suffered from earthquakes. Hence also may have arisen the custom in some places of sacrificing moles to him. The great seawave which often accompanies an earthquake was also his work · the destruction of Helice in Achaia by such a λvave (373 b.c. ) was attributed to his wrath. Once when an earthquake shook the ground where a Spartan army was encamped, the whole army sang a hymn to Poseidon. The island of Delos was thought to have been raised by him from the bottom of the sea, and in 237 B.c., when a new island appeared between Thera and Therasia, the Rhodians founded a temple of Poseidon on it. Thessaly was said to have been a lake until this god opened a way for the waters through the Vale of Tempe. Poseidon was also the god of springs, which ...he produced by striking the rock with his trident, as he did on the acropolis of Athens when he was disputing with Athene for the sovereignty of Athens. This dispute was represented on the western pediment of the Parthenon. As he gave, so he could withhold springs of water; thus the waterless neighbourhood of Argos was supposed to suffer from his anger. Black bulls were sacrificed to him; in Ionia and Thessaly bull-fights took place in his honour; at a festival of his at Ephesus the cupbearers were called “bulls,” and the god himself was surnamed “Bull Poseidon.” The herse was especially associated with his λvorship; he was said to have produced the first horse by striking the ground in Thessaly with his trident. At a fountain in Argolis horses bitted and bridled were sacrificed to him by being drowned in the water, and similarly Sextus Pompeius sought to propitiate him by throwing horses into the sea. He bore the surname of “Horse Neptune,” and was regarded as the tamer as well as the creator of the steed. His worship was thought by Herodotus to have been derived from the Libyans. It had special seats in Thessaly, Boeotia, and the Peloponnesus. He had a famous cave-like temple at Taenarum in Laconia. On the island of Tenos he was worshipped as the physician, and crowds gathered from the neighbouring islands to offer sacrifice. At Mycale in Asia Minor the Panionium, or place of general assembly of the Ionian Greeks, was sacred to him. In the Trojan War Poseidon sided with the Greeks because he had been cheated of his reward by Laomedon, the former king of Troy, for whom he had built the city walls. The offspring of his numerous amours λvere mostly wild and cruel like the sea; such were the Laestrygones, Polyphemus, Cycnus, Antaeus, Busiris, Procrustes, Sciron, and Orion. Alcinous, king of the seafaring Phaeacians in the Odyssey, traced his lineage to Poseidon. By far the most famous of the festivals of Poseidon was that celebrated every second year on the Isthmus of Corinth and hence called the “Isthmian festival” (see vol. x. p. 65). Pine trees were sacred to Poseidon; a row of them stood close to his temple on the isthmus. Amongst the Ionians the stormy month which precedes the winter solstice was called by the name of Poseidon. He was described as dark-haired, broad-breasted, and blueeyed. In works of art he appeared holding a trident and with a dolphin on his hand or under his feet; sometimes he was represented riding a bull, a horse, or a sea-horse, or in a chariot, often surrounded by the Tritons, Nereids, and other fabulous creatures of the sea. There were colossal statues of him at Helice in Achaia, on the Isthmus of Corinth (set up by the Greeks after the Persian Avars), and at Tenos. The derivation of his name is uncertain; some refer it to the same root as τroτos, ττοτα/χός, &c.; others compare ττότνια. In modern Greece St Nicholas has taken the place of Poseidon as patron of sailors. But the Zachyn thians have a special sea-god, half man, half fish, who dwells under the sea, rides on dolphins or in a car drawn by dolphins, and wields a trident. He seems to combine the attributes of Poseidon and Nereus. For the Roman sea-god, see Neptune.
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