Poseidon

Zeus resolved to destroy the wicked human race after hearing of the crimes of Lycaon’s sons. Lycaon had once civilised Arcadia and established the worship of Zeus Lycaeus, but he angered the god by sacrificing a boy to him. Zeus changed Lycaon into a wolf and struck his house with lightning. Later, disguised as a poor traveller, Zeus visited Lycaon’s sons. They served him a meal containing the entrails of their brother Nyctimus, mixed with the entrails of sheep and goats. Zeus overturned the table and changed the sons into wolves, except Nyctimus, whom he restored to life.

Zeus then sent a flood across the earth. He called on Poseidon, god of the sea, to help him. Rain poured from heaven, and Poseidon released the rivers, so that the waters rose over the land and reached the summits of the highest mountains. Tigers struggled in the flood. The wild boar could not use its strength, and the stag could not use its speed. Birds fell into the water from exhaustion. The creatures that survived the waves later died of hunger.

Parnassus alone remained above the waters. After nine days and nine nights, a wooden chest came drifting to its summit, carrying Deucalion and Pyrrha. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus. Pyrrha was his wife, and was described either as the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora or as a woman of Prometheus’s race. They survived because their lives had been harmless, pure, and faithful to the gods.

When Zeus saw that only this pair remained, he ordered the winds to drive away the clouds and reveal the sky. Poseidon then commanded Triton to blow his conch shell and call back the waters. The sea returned to its shores, and the rivers returned to their channels. In another telling, the retreat followed Poseidon’s blast directly, and Deucalion and Pyrrha walked down the mountain after the waves withdrew. They offered a sacrifice to Zeus, then prayed at the shrine of Themis beside the river Cephissus, asking that mankind be renewed. Themis appeared and told them to cover their heads and throw their mother’s bones behind them. They understood the bones to mean the rocks of Mother Earth on the river bank.

Poseidon and Athena each claimed Troezen. Their claims came into conflict, and neither deity accepted the other’s right to the land. The dispute was brought before Zeus, who was required to settle it. The matter concerned the possession of the territory, rather than a contest over a particular gift or achievement.

Zeus ordered Poseidon and Athena to share Troezen. The settlement gave both deities a claim to the territory instead of awarding it wholly to either one. Neither received sole control of the land. Zeus’s order ended the immediate dispute, but it did not satisfy Poseidon, who considered the division unfair.

Poseidon remained dissatisfied with the settlement. The account records no further contest, judgement, gift, or punishment connected with Troezen. It therefore ends with the god’s unwilling acceptance of Zeus’s decision. Other supplied accounts describe a different dispute, between Poseidon and Athena over Athens. In those accounts, Poseidon struck the Acropolis with his trident and produced a saltwater spring, while Athena caused an olive tree to grow. A divine court judged Athena’s gift better, and she gained Athens. That episode is separate from the settlement over Troezen.

Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus and Alcidice, was raised by Cretheus, Salmoneus’s brother. She fell in love with the river Enipeus and often went to its flowing waters to tell it of her sorrows. Poseidon took the river’s appearance and approached her. Deceived by his form, Tyro entered into union with him. She later gave birth in secret to twin sons, but exposed them because she feared Sidero’s anger.

The infants lay abandoned on the ground until a mare belonging to passing horse-trainers struck one of them in the face with its hoof. The horse-trainer recovered both children and brought them up. The bruised child was called Pelias, while the other was called Neleus. Another account says that the twins were found floating down the Enipeus in a wooden ark. A further version says that the horse-herd’s wife reared them, giving Pelias to the mare for suckling and raising Neleus with the help of a bitch.

When Pelias and Neleus grew up, they discovered their mother’s identity and learned that Sidero had treated her cruelly. They went to find Tyro and then set out against Sidero. She took refuge in the sanctuary of Hera, but Pelias pursued her there. He killed her on the altar, despite the protection of the goddess. In this way the twins avenged the wrongs suffered by their mother.

Poseidon saw Amphitrite dancing on Naxos and fell violently in love with her. She feared his stormy wooing and fled into the depths of the sea. In another account, Poseidon first courted Thetis, but abandoned his suit after Themis prophesied that Thetis’s son would become greater than his father. He then approached Amphitrite, another Nereid, whose advances she viewed with repugnance.

Poseidon tried to win Amphitrite with gifts. He made her ornaments from coral, pearl, and bullion taken from sunken treasure ships, but she rejected them. At last he created a talking, dancing fish, named it the dolphin, and sent it to find her. The dolphin pleaded Poseidon’s cause with such wit and eloquence that Amphitrite consented to marry him. In the shorter account, the dolphin brought Amphitrite to Poseidon, who had come to pay his court to her while riding on the dolphin.

Amphitrite became Poseidon’s wife and queen of the sea. She was said to be the daughter of Nereus and Doris, though another account names Oceanus and Hatys as her parents. She remained fond of dolphins and used several of them to draw her crystal chariot. Other descriptions give her a shell chariot with golden wheels, drawn by white sea-horses, while dolphins and Tritons surrounded her and crossed the foaming waves.

Poseidon rewarded the dolphin by placing it among the stars, where it became a constellation. Amphitrite was also said to be the mother of Triton. One later account names the Cyclopes as children of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Another story says that Amphitrite became jealous of Scylla, a maiden loved by Poseidon, and transformed her into a monstrous creature with herbs thrown into a bathing well.

Poseidon and Apollo came forward as rival suitors for Hestia after the dethronement of Cronus. Hestia had resisted every amorous invitation offered to her by gods, Titans, or others. She refused both suitors and swore by Zeus’s head that she would remain a virgin for ever.

Her decision preserved peace among the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus therefore accepted her vow and granted her the highest honours. She received the first victim of every public sacrifice. Other accounts state that Zeus gave her a place at the centre of every house, the richest portion of sacrifices made there, and offerings in the temples of all the gods. She was also regarded as the most important of the goddesses.

Hestia became the goddess of the hearth. Her fire was maintained in private houses and in the public hearth of each city. Every meal began and ended with an offering to her, and the fire of the city hearth was not allowed to go out. When a colony was founded, its settlers carried coals from the hearth of the mother-city to kindle the fire in the new settlement. Hestia’s hearth protected the home and provided a place where suppliants could seek protection in private houses and city halls. The hearth also connected human worshippers with the gods through sacrifice.

Poseidon pursued Demeter, who had changed herself into a mare to escape him. She was known as Demeter Erinys because of the rage that followed this pursuit. Poseidon changed himself into a stallion and covered her. Their union produced the horse Arion and a daughter whose name and nature remained mysterious. The account therefore connects the birth of the horse with the encounter between the two deities in animal form.

This account links Poseidon’s role as father of the horse to his union with Demeter. It also explains his special connection with horses. He was worshipped as Poseidon Hippios, or Horse Poseidon. He was represented as a horseman, kept horses in his sanctuaries, and received honour through chariot races. The Greeks regarded him as both tamer of horses and rescuer of ships. These associations accompanied his worship even where the horse was not described as the child of Demeter.

Other accounts state more simply that Poseidon created the horse. In these versions, the creation was a display of his power among the gods rather than the result of his pursuit of Demeter. The traditions therefore present two accounts of the horse’s origin. Poseidon may have made it directly, or it may have come from his mating with Demeter after both had taken horse form. Poseidon remained its divine father and was linked with horse breeding, racing, and chariots.

Athene guided Perseus’s hand as he looked at Medusa’s reflection in his shield. He cut off her head with one stroke of the sickle. Medusa was mortal, unlike her sisters Stheno and Euryale, and Perseus had been sent to fetch her head. The Gorgons had serpents coiled around their heads, tusks like swine, bronze hands, and golden wings. Anyone who looked directly at them was turned to stone.

Medusa had previously conceived two children by Poseidon in one of Athene’s temples. When Perseus severed her head, Pegasus, the winged horse, and Chrysaor sprang fully grown from her body. Chrysaor held a golden falchion, or, in another account, a golden sword. Pegasus was white, with a golden mane, golden hooves, and golden wings. Chrysaor was later known as the father of Geryon.

Perseus placed Medusa’s head in his wallet and fled. Stheno and Euryale awoke and pursued him after hearing their new nephews, but they could not see him because he wore a helmet that made him invisible. In another account, the cap hid him from their view. The accounts agree that Medusa’s children emerged when Perseus cut off her head, and that Poseidon had fathered them earlier.

War broke out between Athens and Eleusis. Eumolpus, son of Poseidon and leader of the Eleusinian forces, brought a large force of Thracians to the conflict. Erechtheus, king of Athens, consulted an oracle about the means of securing victory. The oracle declared that the Athenians would prevail if he sacrificed his youngest daughter, Otionia, to Athena.

Otionia was willingly led to the altar and killed. Her elder sisters, Protogonia and Pandora, then took their own lives. They had sworn that if one of them died by violence, they would die as well. In the battle that followed, Ion led the Athenians. Eumolpus fled, and Erechtheus struck him down. The death of Eumolpus ended the fighting in favour of Athens.

Poseidon sought vengeance for the death of his son. One account says that Zeus answered his appeal and destroyed Erechtheus with a thunderbolt. Another says that Poseidon himself killed Erechtheus with a blow from his trident at Macrae, where the earth opened and received him. Poseidon also destroyed Erechtheus’s house. Cecrops, Erechtheus’s eldest son, then became king of Athens.

After the battle, the Eleusinians became subject to the Athenians in every matter except the control of their mysteries. Eumolpus was succeeded as priest by his younger son, Ceryx. The story was connected with the cult shared by Poseidon and the heroised Erechtheus, whose shrine and altar were associated with both figures. The accounts differ over the manner of Erechtheus’s death, but both connect it with Poseidon’s response to Eumolpus’s killing.

The Giants attacked Zeus, and Poseidon came to his aid. He engaged Polybotes, one of the Giants, in single combat. Polybotes fled across the sea, but Poseidon followed him and continued the pursuit. The fighting carried the two opponents away from the main battle between the gods and the Giants.

Poseidon reached the island of Cos. With his trident, he broke off a fragment of the island and hurled it at Polybotes. The fragment struck and crushed the Giant. It became the island of Nisyros, with Polybotes lying beneath it. The island was therefore formed from part of Cos and remained associated with the defeated Giant.

This contest is associated with the Gigantomachy, the war in which the Giants opposed Zeus. Poseidon acted as Zeus’s ally, and the defeat of Polybotes formed one episode within the wider fighting. The account places the encounter at sea and ends with the Giant trapped under the new island. Ancient images also show Poseidon carrying Nisyros on his shoulder while facing a Giant. One early fifth-century vase instead shows Poseidon attacking Ephialtes, although Polybotes is usually named as his opponent.