SEA GODS BY

POSEIDON

At birth Poseidon was swallowed whole by his father Kronos (Cronus), but Zeus later enlisted the aid of the goddess Metis who fed the Titan a magical elixir causing him to disgorge the god. <<More>>

During the War of the Titans, the Kyklopes (Cyclopes) crafted a magical trident for Poseidon, and together with his brothers Zeus and Hades he defeated the elder gods and imprisoned them in Tartaros. <<More>>

Poseidon and his brothers drew lots for the division of the cosmos after the fall of the Titans, and won the sea as his domain.

When the Gigantes (Giants) besieged the gods of Olympus, Poseidon crushed Polybotes beneath the island of Kos (Cos). <<More>> For the werkered clike on more I copy and paste by my favorite author about Poseidon. He entered a contest with the goddess Athena for dominion over Athens and produced the very first horse as a gift. But the king refused him the prize and in anger Poseidon afflicted the land with drought.

The god assaulted his sister Demeter in the shape of a horse as she was wandering the earth in search of her daughter Persephone. <<More>>

Poseidon seduced many nymphs and mortal woman often in the guise of an animal or flowing water. Some of his most famous conquests were the Gorgon Medusa (Medusa), Tyro, Amymone, and Aithra mother of the hero Theseus. <<More>>

The god helped build the walls of the city of Troy, but when King Laomedon refused the payment he had promised, Poseidon sent a sea-monster to ravage the land. <<More>>

The hero Odysseus blinded the god's son Polyphemus on his return from Troy and Poseidon sent a storm to scatter and wreck the hero's fleet. <<More>>.Poseidon was a son of the Titans Kronos (Cronus) and Rheia and a grandson of Ouranos (the Heavens) and Gaia (the Earth). He was a brother of the gods Zeus, Haides, Hera, Demeter and Hestia.

Poseidon married the marine-goddess Amphitrite, eldest child of Nereus, first born son of Pontos (the Sea), a marital alliance which secured his dominion over the sea. Their son was the fish-tailed god Triton.

He also had numerous mortal offspring including giants such as Antaios and the cyclops Polyphemos, magical horses like Pegasos and Arion, and various human kings, heroes and villians including Theseus and Bellerophontes. <<More>>

Below are two graphics depicting Poseidon's family tree, the first with names transliterated from the Greek and the second with the common English spellings:-

Poseidon riding Hippocamp, Athenian black-figure cup C6th B.C., British Museum

ENCYCLOPEDIA

POSEIDON (Poseidôn), the god of the Mediterranean sea. His name seems to be connected with potos, pontos and potamos, according to which he is the god of the fluid element. (Müller, Proleg. p. 290.)

He was a son of Cronos and Rhea (whence he is called Kronios and by Latin poets Saturnius, Pind. Ol. vi. 48; Virg. Aen. v. 799.) He was accordingly a brother of Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter, and it was determined by lot that he should rule over the sea. (Hom. Il. xiv. 156, xv. 187, &c.; Hes. Theog, 456.) Like his brothers and sisters, he was, after his birth, swallowed by his father Cronos, but thrown up again. (Apollod. i. 1. § 5, 2. § 1.)

According to others, he was concealed by Rhea, after his birth, among a flock of lambs, and his mother pretended to have given birth to a young horse, which she gave to Cronos to devour. A well in the neighbourhood of Mantineia, where this is said to have happened, was believed, from this circumstance, to have derived the name of the "Lamb's Well," or Arne. (Paus. viii. 8. § 2.) According to Tzetzes (ad Lycoph. 644) the nurse of Poseidon bore the name of Arne; when Cronos searched after his son, Arne is said to have declared that she knew not where he was, and from her the town of Arne was believed to have received its name. According to others, again, he was brought up by the Telchines at the request of Rhea. (Diod. v. 55.)

In the earliest poems, Poseidon is described as indeed equal to Zeus in dignity, but weaker. (Hom. Il. viii. 210, xv. 165, 186, 209; comp. xiii. 355, Od. xiii. 148.) Hence we find him angry when Zeus, by haughty words, attempts to intimidate him; nay, he even threatens his mightier brother, and once he conspired with Hera and Athena to put him into chains (Hom. Il. xv. 176, &c., 212, &c.; comp. i. 400.); but, on the other hand, we also find him yielding and submissive to Zeus (viii. 440).

The palace of Poseidon was in the depth of the sea near Aegae in Euboea (xiii. 21; Od. v. 381), where he kept his horses with brazen hoofs and golden manes. With these horses he rides in a chariot over the waves of the sea, which become smooth as he approaches, and the monsters of the deep recognise him and play around his chariot. (Il. xiii. 27, comp. Virg. Aen. v. 817, &c., i. 147; Apollon. Rhod. iii. 1240, &c.) Generally he himself put his horses to his chariot, but sometimes he was assisted by Amphitrite. (Apollon. Rhod. i. 1158, iv. 1325; Eurip. Androm. 1011; Virg. Aen. v. 817.) But although he generally dwelt in the sea, still he also appears in Olympus in the assembly of the gods. (Hom. II. viii. 440, xiii. 44, 352, xv. 161, 190, xx. 13.)

Poseidon in conjunction with Apollo is said to have built the walls of Troy for Laomedon (vii. 452; Eurip. Androm. 1014),whence Troy is called Neptunia Pergama (Neptunus and Poseidon being identified, Ov. Fast. i. 525, Heroid. iii. 151; comp. Virg. Aen. vi. 810.) Accordingly, although he was otherwise well disposed towards the Greeks, yet he was jealous of the wall which the Greeks built around their own ships, and he lamented the inglorious manner in which the walls erected by himself fell by the hands of the Greeks. (Hom. Il. xii. 17, 28, &c.) When Poseidon and Apollo had built the walls of Troy, Laomedon refused to give them the reward which had been stipulated, and even dismissed them with.