The Greeks have always looked at the sea, explored it and taken advantage of it. They were aware, however, of its danger, so they did not forget to pay tribute to the great lord of the waters, Poseidon.

Poseidon was the god of the waters and the creatures that live in them. This was a world in which mortals ventured not without fear, knowing that the god, given his fickle and treacherous charactercould shipwreck them in an instant and push them into an abyss populated by monstrous creatures. Hence They will not go to sea without first invoking his favor.: “Greetings, Poseidon, who gathers the earth, the dark-haired one: with a favorable heart he protects, blessed one, those who sail.”said an old hymn dedicated to him.

Poseidon and the draw of the universe

Poseidon was not born as a god of the seas, although his early years were spent in a humid and gloomy space in which there were plenty of opportunities to splash around: his father’s stomach. And it is that His father, Cronus, swallowed him as soon as he was born..

Poseidon only saw the light of the world when, as an adult, He was regurgitated along with his siblings Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia thanks to Zeuswho had escaped Cronus’s gluttony thanks to the ingenuity of his mother Rhea.

That liberation was the prologue to a long war between the previous generation of gods, the Titans, and the new one, those who would later be known as Olympians. In that contest, Poseidon distinguished himself thanks to a trident that his allies Cyclops had forged for him and that had the power to make the earth shake when he stuck himself hard into her.

The Olympians were winners and the three males, Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, the universe was divided by lot. The seas corresponded to the last one. Satisfied, he sank into them and there, in the depths, he built his mansion.

However, some references in Ancient myths and poems suggest that Poseidon was actually an earth-bound god. “earth shaker«They called him because of his ability to cause earthquakes. In addition, he was associated with two animals, the horse and the bull, completely and unequivocally terrestrial…

The loves of Poseidon

Like his brother Zeus, Poseidon was an absolutely incontinent god when it came to love. To your wife, the water nymph Amphitritehe had no choice but to resign. From that marriage was born Triton, god of the deep sea.

Poseidon had numerous relationshipsboth with goddesses and mortals. One of the strangest was the one he had with Demeterand not so much because of her incestuous nature, but because she, fleeing from her brother’s harassment, turned into a mare and galloped until he found refuge among other horses. It was of no use to her, as Poseidon metamorphosed into a stallion and it didn’t take him long to find her. A few months later a son was born, Arion, who, as it could not be otherwise, was a colt. Of course, with powers.

That was not the only son of Poseidon with equine form: another was Pegasus, the winged horse. In this case, the birth did not follow normal channels, since the creature emerged between jets of blood when the sword of the hero Perseus cut the neck of Medusa. This was then a monster with hair like snakes and a look that turned you into stone, but before it had been a beautiful priestess of Athena. So beautiful, that Poseidon seduced and raped hereven knowing that this would attract Athena’s wrath not towards him, but towards the poor victim, as it did. Pegasus must have been fathered during that rape.

Speaking of which, Poseidon was also the father of a ram, the Golden Fleecewhich he had after kidnapping the beautiful Teófaneturn her into a sheep so that she would go unnoticed among her suitors and join her in the form of a ram.

Poseidon also joined with Euryale, one of the daughters of King Minos of Cretewith which she had a giant, Orionwho had the ability to walk through the waters.

Giants were too Oto and Ephialtes, sons of the mortal Iphimedea. Feeling rejected by their father Poseidon, they both tried to assault Olympus by piling stones and more stones until they formed a mountain just as tall. In the end, they ended up killing each other when they were chasing Artemis to rape her.

Another famous son of Poseidon, in this case with the nymph Toosait was the cyclops polyphemus. But, in his case, the worst thing was not his appearance, with that single eye on his forehead that gave him an intimidating air, but his detestable eating habits: human flesh was his weakness. The hero Ulysses knew this well, as he saw how several of his companions were devoured by him. In the end, she managed to get him drunk and blind his eye, which earned her the displeasure of Poseidon.

Poseidon: a violent father with violent children

All those children are a good example of the violent and thoughtless nature of Poseidon. They can join Procrustes, Cercyon and Scirusthree real psychopaths who They robbed and killed those they encountered. The first’s way of acting was especially insane, as he offered hospitality to travelers and then, when bedtime arrived, he would cut off anything (head or limbs) that protruded from the bed or, if the person was rather short, he would stretch his limbs until they were out of joint. Theseus killed all threethe great hero of Athens whom myths make son or grandson, precisely, of Poseidon.

That affiliation, however, was not enough for the Athenians to choose Poseidon as their protective god. Athena also aspired to that position, and she was the one who finally got it. And all because he offered the inhabitants of the city a gift before which the source of salt water granted by Poseidon could do nothing: the first olive tree.

The cult of the god Poseidon

Poseidon did not achieve patronage over the most splendid city in Greece, but that did not mean that the Athenians did not worship him. They did it in Temple of Souniona promontory whose waters were crossed by all those sailors who set sail or returned from Athens. In this way they could entrust themselves to the god on their journey or thank him for the journey that returned them home safe and sound.

The god Poseidon also had temples at Sicyon and Asea, in the Peloponnese, and on the island of Calauria (current Poros).

The most spectacular temple of all was that of Poseidonia, a Greek colony founded in southern Italy in the 7th century BC, whose name paid tribute to Poseidon, although today the enclave is better known by the Latin Paestum. However, there are scholars who claim that this temple was actually dedicated to his sister Hera.