Image:Zeus or Poseidon, front side view, 475-450BC.JPG

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Poseidon

National Archeological Museum Athens Author: J Drumm

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Poseidon was one of the Ancient Greek gods, an Olympian god. He was the God of sea, which meant he had control of the sea. He was also god of horses and was the person who created Earthquakes; this gave him the title as “Earth-Shaker”. Poseidon was born to Kronos and Rhea, who were known as the Titans, the Titans were the rulers before the Olympic Gods. Poseidon had many brothers and sisters, such brothers were Zeus and Hades, and sisters such as Hera, who married Zeus.

During the reign of Kronos, Kronos decided to eat his children, including Poseidon. But Zeus managed to get Kronos to throw up and regurgitate the children. This made Poseidon angry and also his brothers and sisters, so they all planned to overthrow the Titans, and take over and it was a success. Cyclopes had also helped in overthrowing the Titans. The world was then split into three, Zeus now became ruler of the planet and of the sky, Poseidon became ruler of the sea and Hades became ruler of the Underworld.

Poseidon was married to Amphitrite, a sea Nymph. But even though they were married, Poseidon had other “flings” with mortals. One such mortal was a young beautiful lad, called Pelops. Pelops was the son of Tantalus, and took him as his new lover. Pelops was received a gift, a winged chariot, in which he used in a race against Oenomaus, for the hand of a Hippodamia. In other myths, it was said that Poseidon had tried to get with Demeter, but she had rejected him, and turned into a mare in order to hide from him. But of course, this didn’t work, and Poseidon had seen straight through the deception, so, turning into a stallion, he captured Demeter and made love. Their child was a horse, named Arion. But this horse was also capable of human speech. This was during the archaic timeline.

Poseidon had made love to Medusa in a temple which had been dedicated to Athena. For this, Medusa was turned into a monster, as it was a disgrace to do this in a temple.

Another story was that Poseidon had made love to Tyro, a mortal lady who was married to Cretheus. From this marriage, they had one son, Aeson. Tyro wasn’t very fond of the marriage, and wasn’t particularly in love with Cretheus, she was in fact in love with Enipeus, a river god, whom she pursued, but he rejected her. So Poseidon used this to his advantaged and decided to disguise himself as Enipeus, and tricked her into thinking that it was really him, made love, and bore twin boys, Pelias and Neleus.

This wasn’t the end of his journey, Poseidon had made love to many women, and had many children, which, was typical of Gods.


Poseidon’s believers

Most Greeks worshipped Poseidon, as he was one of the most important gods, especially with travellers, as they had to make sacrifices in order for them to cross the sea. This was critical because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to cross the sea without being killed or having their ships severely damaged. He would calm the seas for the sailors and he also created new islands. One of the main animals they sacrificed was horses by drowning the horses. He had several cities in which he was very important such as Athens. Poseidon and Athena had a competition where each one would give a gift to the Athenians, and they then would have to choose who’s gift was either important or the nicest.

Who’s ever gift was the one they liked, they then became the patron of the city Athens. The competition was held at, where the Erectheum is now built. So Poseidon’s gift was a spring, which sprung out salty water, this wasn’t any good really. Athena’s gift was an olive tree. Once this was finished, King Cecrops and the people accepted the olive tree as it was more useful than salty water, it was a source of food, oil, which was widely used during Ancient Greek times and wood, which was important mainly for their ships, and at the early stage of buildings, such as temples. However, they were scared that they would anger Poseidon so they decided to make him the second most important immortal, Athena being the first and she became Athens patron.


Poseidon’s people The Phaecians were people who were known for their excellence in sailors. They were perhaps, the best you could get in the Ancient Greek time, and they were very loyal towards Poseidon. They were kind and caring, and were welcoming, especially towards Odysseus. Poseidon helped in the beginning of the Phaecians. Phaecians are direct descendants of Poseidon himself, as he was the father of the original king, King Nausithous. His mother was Periboea, she was the loveliest woman of her time Nausithous had a son called Alcinous and Rhexoner, but Rhexoner had no children before he was killed by Apollo with one of his silver bows. So Alcinous had looked over Phaecia or Scheria and ruled as King, along with Arete.

In the story of The Odyssey, the Phaecians had no idea that Poseidon had an extreme grudge against him, and so when they set sail and took Odysseus home, on their return to their home land from Ithaca, their ship was struck and turned to stone by Poseidon himself, as payment for taking Odysseus home.

Why did Poseidon have a grudge against Odysseus

In the story of The Odyssey, in which we see Odysseus’s journey for his reach for home, Poseidon played a huge part in Homer’s story. On one of Odysseus’s journey’s, Odysseus and his crew had landed on an island, for food and supplies. Homer depicted them going into a cavern, a large one, and had found large amount of cheese and food, and decided to helped themselves. A Cyclops, named Polythemus, son of Poseidon, had come into the cave, which was in fact his home. Trapped by him, he started to eat Odysseus’s men, one by one, so they planned to attack him, by getting him drunk. So they gave him wine, as an offering, but they hadn’t mixed it with water, and so it was very strong. They managed to get him drunk, and he passed out. Odysseus and his men then got a spoke, and heated it up, and struck him in the eye, blinding him completely. Polythemus screamed in pain, and opened the large boulder which was covering the exit, so Polythemus tried looking for Odysseus and his men, but they hid under the sheep, so Polythemus wouldn’t find them. They escaped, due to Odysseus cunning plan, by naming himself Nobody, so that when the Cyclops shouted out to the other Cyclopes, he would basically say that nobody has hurt him, resulting in the others not helping him.

This outrageous plan, had angered Poseidon so much, his hatred for Odysseus made him want to kill him, and on more than a few occasions tried killing him, and tried to make his journey suffer and take even longer, which it did, and it took Odysseus many years before he reached the land of Ithaca.

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