The Banishing of the Sea

Disclaimer - this is not a real Greek myth, I made it up, although the characters are real in Greek mythology. Hope you enjoy.

Pontus was pacing, nervously. His crab-claw horns snapping restlessly upon his head. He was walking next to his favourite body of water; the Aegean Sea, but even that didn’t seem to calm him. Not nearly enough people have heard of Pontus. Although most of those people have heard of his ‘all-powerful’, ‘master of the sea’ son, Poseidon. Pontus thought this begrudgingly. Who did those people think gave him those powers? You see, Pontus was the original sea god. Although, the term ‘sea god’ did not do Pontus justice at all, because, in fact, Pontus was the sea.

With every pace along the Aegean Sea coast, the sea rippled, as though sensing Pontus’s stress. Not much made a god anxious, but a meeting with your mother would certainly do it. His mother was omnipotent but certainly not benevolent. She was an all-consuming, evil deity, named Gaia. However now, most people know her better as simply the Earth. She is the ground you walk upon, the dirt that feeds your crops and the birthplace of all life. She was not one to be messed with. That was why, even though she was Pontus’s mother, she was also Poseidon’s mother. Yes, that’s right. Pontus has a son with his mother. This was not why Pontus was stressed now, though, but it was still a horrifying thought to him.

At this very moment, Pontus was afraid his mother was going to have a quest for him to complete. Pontus thought this sounded ridiculous. He was a sea god, for Gods sake, even more, he was every ocean, every river, every tiny little puddle and still Gaia insisted he partake on a quest to kill some stupid mortal who had annoyed her. How absolutely bizarre was that?! But that’s the thing about Gaia, if you disagree with her, she shall simply swallow you whole, straight into the depths of Tartarus itself.

Tartarus was not a place Pontus wanted to visit anytime soon. It was sort of the Underworld for Titans. Even though technically Pontus was not a Titan, he was sure Gaia wouldn’t hesitate in sending him there. It was a horrible place for even Gods to be, and there weren’t many of them. This meant, that if Pontus wanted to remain with his beloved water, he must do what Gaia wants. 

  Finally, after pacing the sea for as long as he dared, it was time for Pontus to see his mother. It wasn’t a far walk, all he had to do was find the closest bit of dirt. 

  ‘Mother,’ he said, tentatively, ‘I heard you wanted to see me. Have you got another chore for me to complete?’ Slowly, the ground started to stir, until Pontus could just about make out the outline of a face in the soil. The mouth started to creep into a sneer. Pontus’ heart raced a little bit faster. No one, not even her son, was safe from Gaia. 

  ‘Ah, Pontus, my dear. You are ever so faithful.’ The mouth didn’t move as she said this. The words just seemed to appear in Pontus’s mind. ‘I do indeed have a quest for you. Out there.’ Gaia had no hands, so could not point, but somehow, Pontus knew she meant in the direction of the Aegean Sea. This did make Pontus feel a little bit better, if he had to fight at least it was on the water. 

  Gaia continued to cast words into his head. ‘About 3 days that way, you will meet a man. He will explain more. You will go there now.’ And with that, the face disappeared. Pontus turned towards the sea and set off for his journey, since he gambled that whatever was waiting for him was a thousand times better than Tartarus. 

  Being a God, the journey was pretty easy. There were no monsters for Pontus to slay, no barriers for him to overcome, for if there were any, they would obey him. As they did in fact live in his territory, with his permission. 

  Pontus passed many hippocampi, most of whom stopped to say hello. He passed by a very small island, it was really just a tree on a rock. Lounging in the shade of the large tree were a group of sea nymphs, who all politely waved at Pontus passing by. 

  Now that Pontus’s conversation with Gaia was over, his heart had started to return to its usual rhythm, although Pontus knew that if he did not succeed on this journey, Gaia would not be happy at all. This did frighten him slightly, but Pontus was a God. Not many creatures could say no to him as he could simply drown them, with just the flick of his fingers. This meant that whatever Gaia wanted him to do should be pretty straight forward. 

  Finally, after exactly three days of travelling the oceans, Pontus came across a man. He did not recognise him, which was suspicious as if he lived in the ocean, Pontus would know about it. The man was wearing a white toga and stood on a small patch of dirt, floating in the water. Pontus realised this was some poor mortal Gaia had killed and was using his body as a minion, to do her dirty work. Pontus felt a bit sorry for this man, but he knew that he could not go against his mother. 

‘What does Gaia want me to do?’ Pontus asked the man.

The man smiled that same sneer that Pontus had seen in the dirt earlier. ‘Gaia has decided that two sea gods is too many. If you wish to remain in charge of your precious water, you must fight for it.’ Pontus was slightly relieved, there weren’t many creatures that he could lose a fight to. Although the stakes were high, Pontus really did not want to give up his powers over the sea, he was pretty confident he could triumph over whatever monster Gaia had waiting for him.

The man held out his arm, gesturing towards the sea behind him. Pontus gazed in that direction. The sea slowly started to ripple more and more, like something was emerging from its depths. This is brilliant, Pontus thought, a sea monster would be even better and easier for him to defeat. They all worshipped him. Suddenly, a giant head started to appear out of the blue waves. As the head got higher, more of this person started to become visible. Pontus’ heart stopped beating. His breath became shallow and the colour drained out of him until he was the same shade of blue ice covering a lake in the depths of winter. Pontus knew that head anywhere. He created that head, he shared his powers with it, his wisdom. It was Poseidon. 

  Poseidon’s mouth curled into an unfriendly smile. His torso was now completely visible. He must have been standing on the sea floor because he had stopped rising. He was at least 10 feet tall from his torso to his head. Pontus dreaded to think how tall he was from head to toe. 

  ‘Father,’ Poseidon sneered. ‘we meet again. It’s been a while. I hear Mother has had enough of you.’

  ‘I believe she has had enough of two sea gods, not just me.’ Pontus said, although he wasn’t sure if he believed that anymore. 

  ‘Well, then, I guess we should get on with it.’ With that, Poseidon raised his hand, which now contained a spear, sharp enough to pierce the skin of any living thing. He swung it quickly, at Pontus in an effort to sweep him off his feet. Luckily, Pontus was quicker. He dived down into the ocean. As he made his way back up to the surface, he willed the sea to come with him. He stood proudly, on top of a wave, ever growing in size. It lifted him higher and higher into the sky, until his head was finally level with Poseidon’s. He commanded the wave to fall over his son, in order to try and disorientate him, knowing it will only buy him time. However, the wave had other ideas. It came crashing down rapidly, swirling Pontus in the centre. The wave hit the surface of the sea and the momentum caused Pontus to dive deeper and deeper.

Neither he nor Poseidon could drown, so Pontus would have to come up with a different plan. He could sense a sea monster nearby. He ordered it come to his aid. From the depths of the sea, Pontus could see his creature. It was a hydra. He could see one dragon-like head coming closer. And then another and another, until nine heads were all staring at Pontus, awaiting their orders. He thrust his hand in the direction of Poseidon and the body carrying the nine heads, swam in that direction. Poseidon swung his spear at one of the heads, slicing it clean off. The hydra, however, grew two new heads in its place.

While Poseidon was distracted, Pontus managed to crawl up one of his giant legs and made his way to the head. Pontus was smiling, as he pulled out his own spear, ready to be the first person to ever kill a God. Suddenly, his spear was whipped out of his hand. He saw the man, throwing dirt at him. No, that wasn’t right. The dirt wasn’t flying at him, it was literally slapping him. It had formed a huge hand and it was hitting Pontus across the face. One of the hydra heads had noticed this and slithered back into the sea, not wanting to be on the side against Gaia. Pontus, once again, felt all his confidence drain out of him. Poseidon was right, Gaia was working against him. His own mother wanted him destroyed. As he was distracted, thinking about his mother’s betrayal, Poseidon grabbed Pontus in his giant hand and pierced his spear straight through Pontus’s heart. Poseidon was laughing.

  ‘I am victorious. I shall take my rightful place as the Olympian God of the Sea.’ Pontus, being the sea, could not actually die, but he felt like he had. His son and mother had plotted against him. He would not be welcome at the sea anymore. The ocean was now completely under Poseidon’s control. He would be banished to the place he hated the most, a desert with no water for miles, a place where time would forget him. 

  So, the next time you think of the sea, and how powerful Poseidon must be to control it all, remember of what he did to become that. Remember how he murdered the essence of his own father, just so he could sit on a throne, on top of a stupid mountain for all eternity, while the person who gave him his powers, is stuck, helpless, alone and far, far away from everything he ever loved.