POSEIDON

Poseidon is one of the twelve Olympian deities of the pantheon in Greek mythology. His main domain is the ocean, and he is called the "God of the Sea". Additionally, he is referred to as "Earth-Shaker" due to his role in causing earthquakes, and has been called the "tamer of horses". He is usually depicted as an older male with curly hair and beard. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology; both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon .Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece as a chief deity, but he was integrated into Olympian gods as the brotherof Zeus and Hades.According some folklore, he was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which was devouredbyCronos. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena. According to the references fromhisdialogue Timaeusandtia. Linear B, is Po-se-da-o or Po-se-da-wo-ne, which correspond to Poseidan and Poseidawonos in Mycenean Greek; in Homeric Greek it appears A common epithet of Poseidon Earth-shaker," an epithet which is also This recalls his later epithets Ennosidas and Ennosigaios indicating the chthonic nature of Poseidon. The origins of the name "Poseidon" are unclear. One theory breaks it down into an element meaning "husband" or "lord" and another element meaning "earth", producing something like lord or spouse of Da, i.e. of the earth; this would link with Demeter,?"Earth-mother."Walter Burkert finds that "the second element da- remains hopelessly ambiguous" and finds a "husband of Earth" reading "quite impossible to prove. Another theory interprets the second element as related to the word * dwon, "water"; this would make *Posei-dawn into the master of waters.,here is also the possibility that the word has Pre-Greek origin. Plato in his dialogue Cratylus gives two alternative etymologies: either the sea restrained Poseidon when walking as a foot-bond (-), or he knew many things.

If surviving Linrearr B clay tablets can be trusted, the name po-se-da-wo-ne ("Poseidon") occurs with greater frequency than does di-u-ja ("Zeus"). A feminine variant, po-se-de-ia, is also found, indicating a lost consort goddess, in effect a precursor of Amphritrite. Poseidon carries frequently the title wa-na-ka ( wanax) in Linrear B inscriptions, as king of the underworld. The chthonic nature of Poseidon-Wanax is also indicated by his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne in Mycenean Knossos and Pylos.r a powerful attribute (earthquakes had accompanied the collapse of the Minoan palace-culture). In the cave of Amnisos (Crete) Enesidaon is related with the cult of Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two Queens and Poseidon" ("to the Two Queens and the King" :wa-na-ssoi, wa-na-ka-te).

The "Two Queens" may be related with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. The illuminating exception is the archaic and localised myth of the stallion Poseidon and mare Demeter at Phigalia in isolated and conservative Arcadia, noted by Pausanias (2nd century AD) as having fallen into desuetude; the violated Demeter was Demeter Erinys. It is possible that Demeter appears as Da-ma-te in ,In the heavily sea-dependent Mycenaean culture, no connection between Poseidon and the sea has yet surfaced, when the world was divided by lot among his three sons; Zeus was given the sky, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the sea, with the Earth and Mount Olympus belonging to all three. Given Poseidon's connection with horses as well as the sea, and the landlocked situation of the likely Indo-European homeland, Nobuo Komita has proposed that Poseidon was originally an aristocratic Indo-European horse-god who was then assimilated to Near Eastern aquatic deities when the basis of the Greek livelihood shifted from the land to the sea, or a god of fresh waters who was assigned a secondary role as god of the sea, where he overwhelmed the original Aegean sea deities such as Conversely, Walter suggests that the Hellene cult worship of Poseidon as a horse god may be connected to the introduction of the horse and war-chariot from Anatolia to Greece around 1600 BC. In any case, the early importance of Poseidon can still be glimpsed in Homer's Odyssey, where Poseidon rather than Zeus is the major mover of events.Poseidon was the second son of. In most accounts he is swallowed by Cronus at birth but later with his other brothers and sisters, by Zeus. However in some versions of the story, he, like his brother Zeus, did not share the fate of his other brother and sisters who were eaten by Cronus. He was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which she gave to Cronus to devour. According to a single reference in the Iliad, when the world was divided by lot in three, Zeus received the sky, Hades the underworld and Poseidon the sea. In the Odyssey (v.398), Poseidon has a home in Aegae. Athena became the patron goddess of the city of Athens after a competition with Poseidon. Yet Poseidon remained a numinous presence on the Acropolis in the form of his surrogate, At the dissolution festival at the end of the year in the Athenian calendar, the Skira, the priests of Athena and the priest of Poseidon would process under canopies to Eleusis.[25] They agreed that each would give the Athenians one gift and the Athenians would choose whichever gift they preferred. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a spring sprang up; the water was salty and not very useful, whereas Athena offered them an olive tree. The Athenians or their king, Cecrops, accepted the olive tree and along with it Athena as their patron, for the olive tree brought wood, oil and food.

The contest of Athena and Poseidon was the subject of the reliefs on the western pediment of the Parthenon, the first sight that greeted the arriving visitor. This myth is construed by Robert Graves and others as reflecting a clash between the inhabitants during Mycenaean times and newer immigrants. It is interesting to note that Athens at its height was a significant sea power, at one point defeating the Persian fleet at Salamis Island Poseidon and Apollo, having offended Zeus by their rebellion in Hera's scheme, were temporarily stripped of their divine authority and sent to serve King r of Troy. He had them build huge walls around the city and promised to reward them well, a promise he then refused to fulfill. In vengeance, before the Trojan War, Poseidon sent a sea monster to attack Troy. The monster was later killed by Poseidon was said to have had many lovers of both sexes (see expandable list below). His consort was Amphitrite, a nymph and ancient sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus and Doris. Poseidon was the father of many heroes. He is thought to have fathered the famed Theseus. A mortal woman named Tyro was married to Cretheus (with whom she had one son, Aeson) but loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus, and from their union were born the heroesPelias and Neleus, twin boys. Poseidon also had an affair with Alope, his granddaughter through Cercyon, his son and King of Eleusis, begetting the Attic hero Hippothoon. Cercyon had his daughter buried alive but Poseidon turned her into the spring, Alope, near Eleusis. Poseidon rescued Amymone from a lecherous satyr and then fathered a child, Nauplius, by her. After having raped Caeneus, Poseidon fulfilled her request and changed her into a male warrior. A mortal woman named Cleito once lived on an isolated island; Poseidon fell in love with the human mortal and created a dwelling sanctuary at the top of a hill near the middle of the island and surrounded the dwelling with rings of water and land to protect her. She gave birth to five sets of twin boys(the firstborn who being named Atlas) became the first rulers of Atlantis.
Not all of Poseidon's children were human. In an archaic myth, Poseidon once pursued Demeter. She spurned his advances, turning herself into

became a stallion and captured her. Their child was a horse,Arion, which was capable of human speech. Poseidon also had sexual intercourse with on the floor of a temple to Athena. In ancient Greek mythology, was a sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea. In Roman mythology, the consort of Neptune, a comparatively minor figure, was Salacia , the goddess of saltwater. Amphitrite was a daughter of Others called her the personification of the sea itself. Amphitrite's offspring included sea and dolphins.[6] Poseidon and Amphitrite had a son, Triton who was a merman, and a daughter,Rhode (if this Rhode was not actually fathered by Poseidon on Halia or was not the daughter of s as others claim). Bibliotheca (3.15.4) also mentions a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite named 1. Amphitrite is not fully personified in the Homeric epics: "out on the open sea, in Amphitrite's breakers" (Odyssey iii.101), "moaning Amphitrite" nourishes fishes "in numbers past all counting" (Odyssey xii.119). She shares her Homeric epithet Halosydne ("sea-nourished") with Thetis in some sense the sea-nymphs are doublets. Though Amphitrite does not figure in Greek cultus, at an archaic stage she was of outstanding importance, for in theHomeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, she appears at the birthing of Apollo among "all the chiefest of the goddesses, Dioneand Rhea and Ichnaea and Themis and loud-moaning Amphitrite." Theseus in
amare so that she could hide in a herd of horses; he saw through the deception and

the SUBMARINE HALLS OF HIS FATHER POSEIDON SAW THE DAUGHTERS OF NEREUS DANCING WITH LIQUID FEET, AND "AUGUST, OX-EYED AMPHITRITE", WHO WREATHED HIM WITH HER WEDDING WREATH, ACCORDING TO A FRAGMENT OF BACCHYLIDES. JANE ELLEN HARRISON RECOGNIZED IN THE POETIC 2. TREATMENT AN AUTHENTIC ECHO OF Amphitrite, "the third one AMPHITRITE'S EARLY IMPORTANCE: "IT WOULD who encircles [the HAVE BEEN MUCH SIMPLER FOR Poseidon to recognize sea]", was so entirely his own son... the myth belongs to that early stratum of confined in her authority to mythology when Poseidon was not yet god of the sea, or, at the sea and the creatures in least, no-wise supreme thereAmphitrite and the Nereids it that she was almost ruled there, with their servants the Tritons. Even so late as never the Iliad Amphitrite is not yet 'Neptuni uxor'" [Neptune's wife]". associated with her husband, either for purposes of worship or in works of art, except when he was to be distinctly regarded as the god who controlled the sea. An exception may be the t image of Amphitrite that Pausanias saw in the temple of Poseidon at the Isthmus of Corinth (ii.1.7). Pindar, in his sixth Olympian Ode, recognized Poseidon's role as "great god of the sea, husband of Amphitrite, goddess of the golden spindle." For later poets, Amphitrite became simply a metaphor for the sea: Euripides, in Cyclops (702) and Ovid, Metamorphoses, (i.14). Eustathius said that Poseidon first saw her dancing at Naxos among the other Nereids, and carried her off. But in another version of the myth, she fled from his advances to Atlas, at the farthest ends of the sea; there the dolphin of Poseidon sought her through the islands of the sea, and finding her, spoke persuasively on behalf of Poseidon, if we may believe Hyginus and was rewarded by being placed among the stars as the constellation Delphinus. In the arts of vase-painting and mosaic, Amphitrite was distinguishable from the other Nereids only by her queenly attributes. In works of art, both ancient ones and postRenaissance paintings, Amphitrite is represented either enthroned beside Poseidon or driving with him in a chariot drawn by sea-horses (hippocamps) or other fabulous creatures of the deep, and attended by Tritons andNereids. She is dressed in queenly robes and has nets in her hair. The pincers of a crab are sometimes shown attached to her temples. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. According to Hesiod's Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus's genitals and threw them into the sea, and she arose from the sea foam (aphros). According to Homer's Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Because of her beauty, other gods feared that their rivalry over her would interrupt the peace among them and beings were said to be children of lead to war, so Zeus married a her Aphrodite. toHephaestus, who, because of his ugliness Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady and deformity, was not seen as a thr eat. of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) Aphrodite had many loversboth gods, after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. which claimed to be her place of She played a role in the Eros and birth. Myrtle, doves, sparrows, horses, Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis's and swans were said to be sacred to her. The lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser

ancient Greeks identified her with the distinction between a celestial Aphrodite [5] Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. (Aprodite Urania) of transcendent Aphrodite had many other names, such as principles, and a separate, "common" Acidalia, Cytherea and Cerigo, each used by Aphrodite who was the goddess of the a different local cult of the goddess in people (Aphrodite Pandemos). Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these Aphrodite, perhaps altered names as referring to the single goddess after aphrs () "foam", stems from the Aphrodite, despite the slight differences in more archaic Cretan Aphordta and what these local cults believed the goddess Cypriot Aphorodta, and was probably demanded of them. The Attic philosop hers ultimately of the 4th century, however, drew a borrowed from Cypriot Phoenician. Herodotus and Pausanias recorded that Aphrodite's oldest non-Greek temple lay in the Syrian city of

Phoenicia to Cyprus then to mainland Greece.[7] So far, however, attempts to derive the name from Aphrodite's Semitic precursor have been inconclusive. A number of folk etymologies have been proposed through the ages. Hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrs "foam," interpreting the name as "risen from the foam".[8][9] Janda (2010), accepting this as genuine, claims the foam birth myth as an IndoEuropean mytheme. Janda intereprets the name as a compound aphrs "foam" + datai "[she] seems, shines" (infinitive meaning "she who shines from the foam [ocean]", supposedly a byname of Eos, the dawn goddess. LIKEWISE, MALLORY AND ADAMS (1997) PROPOSE AN INDO-EUROPEAN COMPOUND *ABOR- "VERY" AND *DEI- "TO SHINE", ALSO REFERRING TO EOS. HOWEVER, ETYMOLOGIES BASED ON COMPARISON WITH EOS ARE UNLIKELY SINCE APHRODITE'S ATTRIBUTES ARE ENTIREL

Y DIFFERENT FROM THOSE OF EOS (OR VEDIC USHAS).[13] FINALLY, THE MEDIEVAL ETYMOLOGICUM MAGNUM OFFERS A HIGHLY CONTRIVED FOLK ETYMOLOGY, DERIVING APHRODITE FROM THE COMPOUND HABRODAITOS (), "SHE WHO LIVES DELICATELY", FROM HABRS + DAITA. THE ALTERATION FROM B TO PH IS EXPLAINED AS A "FAMILIAR" CHARACTERISTIC OF GREEK "OBVIOUS FROM THE MACEDONIANS",DESPITE OF COURSE THAT THE NAME CANNOT BE OF MACEDONIAN ORIGIN. A NUMBER OF IMPROBABLE NON-GREEK ETYMOLOGIES HAVE BEEN SUGGESTED IN SCHOLARSHIP. ONE SEMITIC ETYMOLOGY COMPARES APHRODITE TO THE ASSYRIANBARRTU, the name of a female demon that appears in Middle Babylonian and Late Babylonian texts Hammarstrm looks to Etruscan, comparing (e)prni "lord", an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as . This would make the theonym in origin an honorific, "the lady".Hjalmar Frisk and Robert Beekes (2010) rejects this etymology as implausible, especially him since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru (from Greek Aphr, clipped form of Aphrodite). Aphrodite is usually said to have been why she is sometimes However, other versions of born near her chief center called "Cyprian", her myth have her born of worship, Paphos, on the especially in the poetic near the island island of Cyprus, which is works of Sappho. of Cythera, hence another of her names, "Cytherea" Cythera was a stopping place for trade and culture between Crete and the Peloponesus, so these stories may preserve traces of the migration of Aphrodite's cult from the Middle East to mainland Greece. In the most famous version of her myth, her birth was the consequence of a castration: Cronus severed Uranus' genitals and threw them behind him into the sea. The foam from his genitals gave rise to Aphrodite (hence her name, meaning "foam-arisen"), while

goddess whose oracle was at Dodona. Aphrodite herself was sometimes also referred to as "Dione". "Dione" seems to be a feminine form
the Erinyes (furies), and the Meliaeemerged from the drops of his blood. Hesiod states that the genitals "were carried over the sea a long time, and white foam arose from the immortal flesh; with it a girl grew." The girl, Aphrodite, floated ashor e on a scallop shell. This iconic representation of Aphrodite as a mature "Venus rising from was made famous in a muchadmired painting by Apelles, now lost, but described in the Natural Historyof Pliny the Elder.of "Dios", the genitive form case of Zeus, and could be taken to mean simply "the goddess" in a generic sense. Aphrodite might, then, be an equivalent of Rhea, the Earth Mother, whom Homer relocate

d to Olympus. In Homer, Aphrodite ventures into battle to protect her son, Aeneas, is wounded by Diomedesk and returns to her mother to sink down at her knee and be comforted. Aphrodite is consistently portrayed, in every image and story, as having had no childhood, and instead being born as a nubile, infinitely desirable adult. She is often depicted nude. In many of the later myths, she is portrayed as vain,i ll-tempered and easily offended. Although she is marriedshe is one of the few gods in the Greek Pantheon who isshe is frequently unfaithful to her husband. Aphrodite's husband Hephaestus is one of the most even-tempered of the Hellenic deities, but in the Odyssey she is portrayed as preferring Ares, the volatile god of war because she is attracted to his violent nature. Aphrodite is one of a few characters in the Odyssey whose actions are a major contributing cause of the Trojan War: she offers Helen of Troy to Paris, and as the goddess of desire, she is responsible for Paris becoming so inflamed with desire for Helen at first sight that he is moved to abduct her. According to one version of Aphrodite's story, because of her immense beauty Zeus fears that the other gods will become violent with each other in their rivalry to possess her. To forestall this, he forces her to marry Hephaestus, the dour, humorless god of smithing. In another version of the story, Aphrodite marries Hephaestus after hi s mother, Hera casts him off Olympus, deeming him too ugly and deformed to inhabit the home of the gods. His revenge is to trap his mother in a magic throne. In return for her release, he demands to be given Aphrodite's hand in marriage. Hephaestus is overjoyed to be married to the goddess of beauty, and forges her beautiful jewelry, including the cestus, a girdle that makes her even more irresistible to men. Her unhappiness with

her marriage causes Aphrodite to seek other male companionship, most often Ares, but also sometimes Adonis. Aphrodite was Adonis' lover and a surrogate mother to him. Cinyras, the King of Cyprus,

had an i ntoxicatingly beautiful daughter named yrrha. When Myrrha's mother commits hubris against Aphrodite by claiming her daughter is more beautiful than the famed goddess, Myrrha is DOWN TO HADES SO punished with a neverCHANGE HER INTO A PERSEPHONE CAN ending lust for her own MYRRH TREE SO HER CARE FOR HIM. father. Cinyras is FATHER CANNOT ADONIS GROWS INTO repulsed by this, but KILL HER. A STRIKINGLY Myrrha disguises herself EVENTUALLY, HANDSOME YOUNG as a prostitute, and CINYRAS TAKES HIS MAN, AND APHRODITE secretly sleeps with her OWN LIFE IN AN ATTEMPT TO EVENTUALLY father at night. RESTORE THE RETURNS FOR HIM. Eventually, Myrrha FAMILY'S HONOR. PERSEPHONE, becomes pregnant AND MYRRHA GIVES BIRTH HOWEVER, IS LOATH IS DISCOVERED BY TO A BABY BOY TO GIVE him up, and CINYRAS. IN A RAGE, NAMED ADONIS. wishes Adonis would stay HE CHASES HER OUT APHRODITE HAPPENS with her in the underworld. OF THE HOUSE WITH BY THE MYRRH TREE The two goddesses begin A KNIFE. MYRRHA AND, SEEING HIM, such a quarrel, Zeus is FLEES FROM HIM, TAKES PITY ON THE forced to intercede. He PRAYING TO THE INFANT. SHE PLACES decrees that Adonis will GODS FOR MERCY AS ADONIS IN A BOX, spend a third of the SHE RUNS. THE GODS AND TAKES HIM HEAR HER PLEA, AND year with Aphrodite, a third of the year with Persephone, and a third of the year with whomever he wishes. Adonis, of course, chooses Aphrodite.

Adonis begins his year on the earth with Aphrodite. One of his greatest passions is hunting, and although Aphrodite is not naturally a hunter, she takes up the sport just so she can be with him. They spend every waking hour with one another, and Aphrodite is enraptured with him. However, her anxiety begins to grow over her neglected duties, and she is forced to leave him for a short time. Before she leaves, she gives Adonis one warning: do not attack an animal which shows no fear. Adonis agrees to her advice, but, secretly DOUBTING HER SKILLS AS A HUNTRESS, QUICKLY FORGETS HER WARNING. nOT LONG AFTER aPHRODITE LEAVES, aDONIS COMES ACROSS AN ENORMOUS WILD BOAR, MUCH LARGER THAN ANY HE HAS EVER SEEN. iT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE BOAR IS THE GOD aRES, ONE OF aPHRODITE'S LOVERS MADE JEALOUS THROUGH HER CONSTANT DOTING ON aDONIS. aLTHOUGH BOARS ARE DANGEROUS AND WILL CHARGE A HUNTER IF PROVOKED, Adonis disregards Aphrodite's warning and pursues the giant creature. Soon, however, Adonis is the one being pursued; he is no match for the giant boar. In the attack, Adonis is castrated by the boar, and dies from a loss of blood. Aphrodite rushes back to his side, but she is too late to save him and can only mourn over his body. Wherever Adonis' blood falls, Aphrodite causes anemones to grow in his memory. She vows that on the anniversary of his death, every year there will be a festival held in his honor. On his death, Adonis goes back to the underworld, and Persephone is delighted to see him again. Eventually, Aphrodite realizes he is there, and rushes back to retrieve him. Again, she and Persephone bicker over who is allowed to keep Adonis until Zeus intervenes. This time, he says Adonis must spend six months with Aphrodite and six months with Persephone, the way it should have been in the first place. The gods and goddesses, as well as various mortals, were invited to the marriage of Peleus and Thetis (the eventual parents of Achilles). Only the goddess Eris (Discord) was not invited, but she arrived with a golden apple inscribed ith the wordkallisti ("to the fairest one"), which she threw among the goddesses. Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena all claimed to be the fairest, and thus the rightful owner of the apple.

The goddesses chose to place the matter before Zeus, who, not wanting to favor one of the goddesses, put the choice into the hands of Paris. After bathing in the spring of Mount Ida (where Troy was situated), the goddesses appeared before Paris. Having been given permission by Zeus to set any conditions he saw fit, Paris

required the goddesses to undress before him to be evaluated. (Alternatively, the goddesses themselves chose to disrobe.) Still, Paris could not decide, as all three were ideally beautiful, so the goddesses resorted to bribes. Hera tried to bribe Paris with control over all Asia and Europe, while Athena offered wisdom, fame, and glory in

battle, and Aphrodite offered the most beautiful mortal woman in the world as a wife, and he accordingly chose her. This woman was Helen, who was, unfortunately for Paris, already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. The other two goddesses were enraged by this, and through Helen's abduction by Paris, they brought about the Trojan War.