In this article, we bring you all the information about Poseidon, the god who rules all the seas and oceans of the world. He is one of the principal gods of the Greek pantheon and one of the most powerful, commanding all the waters. He is a god greatly revered by sailors as the protector of seafarers.
god poseidon
Being the son of the Greek titans Cronus and Rhea, he was swallowed by his father just at birth, but thanks to his mother Rhea who had the idea of hiding his brother the God Zeus so that his father Cronus would not eat him giving him a stone with a diaper on to eat, while he hid Zeus in the city of Crete until he became an adult.
In this way, the goddess Gea, who represents the earth, gave Zeus a potion to give him to drink so that he could regurgitate his brothers, including the god Poseidon.
With this there was a battle between the Olympic gods and the Greek titans which lasted a decade, that is why the god Poseidon is one of the main figures of Greek mythology and a god in the classical pantheon of Greece, along with his brothers the God Zeus and God Hade, took part of the area of influence that the Greek titans had over the entire universe.
That is why the God Poseidon took over the government of all the waters and submarines of the planet, that is why the god Poseidon is the owner and lord of all the seas and oceans of the world. Since the sea has been very important for the Greek culture.
That is why the god Poseidon is one of the most important divinities of the Greek pantheon, where men must worship him if they wanted maritime travel and business at sea to be excellent and with a good happy ending.
In the Bronze Age the god Poseidon was worshiped in the cities of Pylos and Thebes in what was called Mycenaean Greece, and was entered into the Olympian pantheon as the brother of Zeus and the god Hade, likewise the god Poseidon the Owner of all the seas and oceans of the world, he had many children and was the defender of several cities in Greece, but he lost the contest for taking care of the city of Athens against the goddess of war Athena.
The poet Homer himself dedicated a hymn to him and, like the other sea gods, he was represented in the form of horses, in this way the god Poseidon was very important in several cities, but in Athens he was the second most important god since that the main one was the goddess Athena who represents war.
But in cities such as Corinthians, and in the cities of Magna Graecia, he was the god of the people, since in his kindness the god Poseidon spent his time creating new islands and offered calm seas to sailors. But when they made him angry or he felt ignored by his people, he took his trident and plunged it into the ground with great force causing great earthquakes and tidal waves.
Where ships sank or were shipwrecked, for example in the novel the Odyssey the god Poseidon had a great grudge against Odysseus, and prevented him from returning to Ithaca his home. In this way the sailors who wanted to have a safe and happy trip asked the God Poseidon and made sacrifices by throwing horses into the sea.
In a papyrus written long ago, it is shown that Alexander the Great, while on the Greek coast and before carrying out the battle of Issos, began to pray to the god Poseidon to help him win the battle and in this way he launched a chariot of four living horses to the open sea.
According to the historian and traveler surnamed Pausanias, the god Poseidon together with the Titanesses Gea and Themis belonged to the oracle of Delphi, before they were replaced by the Greek god Apollo, in the same way between the god Apollo and the god Poseidon they always collaborated in many areas of colonization.
In a very important example, the god Apollo Delphic gave authorization to the colonizers to settle in inhospitable lands, while the god Poseidon took care of the colonizers when they made their journey by sea to those destinations, in addition to providing them with water. sweet that could be drunk for the sacrifices they offered him.
In the stories told by Xenophon, it is said that there was a group of sailors who performed songs and hymns of worship to the god Poseidon that were normally made to the god Apollo in order not to perish on the journey at sea.
Birth and childhood of the God Poseidon
Being the son of the Greek titans Cronus and Rhea, in the version written by the poet Hesiod in Theogony, Rhea's children were swallowed or swallowed by the titan Cronus to continue maintaining his power and reign.
But Crono's wife did not agree with what he was doing, so when her sixth child was going to be born, she decided to hide him and give Crono a stone with a diaper on to make him believe that she was swallowing her son.
This son was Zeus who was later sent to the city of Crete to be cared for until he became an adult, after being an adult Rhea together with Gea gave Zeus a potion so that he would give it to drink. Crono and make him throw up all his brothers.
In this way the god Poseidon was saved along with his other brothers. There is another version that is told about the life of the god Poseidon and it is that he was raised by the Telchines in the city of Rhodes and in the story told by the Byzantine writer named Juan Tzetzes is that the god Poseidon was cared for by a kourotroph or nanny named Arme.
There is also a reference to the life of the god Poseidon in the novel written by the poet Homer, which is the Iliad, where the world begins to be divided into three parts, the first being the god Zeus taking heaven and earth, while Hades makes the underworld and the god Poseidon takes over the oceans and seas around the world.
In the novel of the Odyssey written by the same poet Homer, the god Poseidon was the owner of a great palace in the city of Egas, but in ancient times the location of that city was discussed since some said that it was located in Achaia while that other scholars said that it was located in Euboea.
Worship offered to the God Poseidon
He was a main god and had great influence on all marine waters, he is a god that has several facets in which the most feared is when he uses his great trident and rides on his chariot that is pulled by horses or by huge seahorses.
However, as previously mentioned, the god Poseidon is related to earthquakes and tidal waves, although many associate this phenomenon with the movement of groundwater.
That is why the hymn attributed to the god Poseidon defines him as a god who can shake the land and the barren sea, so it is assumed that in ancient times the god Poseidon had a role on earth as well as in the sea.
The contest in the city of Athens
Over time, the city of Athens became very important for Greece, which is why the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon wanted to become the patron of the city, but in the dispute between the two gods, so to resolve the conflict that had the gods decided to give the city a present.
In this way it was the same inhabitants of the city who were going to choose which of the two gods was going to be the patron of the city, in this way that the god Poseidon with his trident hit the ground and made a spring of water sprout from the ground salty since he only had control of the oceans and not of the fresh water and this was not useful for the city.
While the goddess Athena who personified war taught the king of the city of Athens named Erechtheus, who taught him the benefits of the Olive tree from its wood that many things could be made and it was used for firewood such as oil and fruits as food.
King Erechtheus realized the benefits that the tree brings and what could be gained economically by cultivating the tree in the city of Athens that when the votes were given, the one who chose it was King Erechtheus who gave the goddess of death as the winner. Athena war.
This decision greatly annoyed the god Poseidon, he did not win the contest and in this way and in the source that was flowing the salt water made it become a very strong jet of water that began to flood the entire part of Attica.
But don't settle for that because he caused a great wave to crash against the city and caused his son named Eumolpus to attack the city of Athens killing its king Erechtheus. Although the retaliation that the God Poseidon took was very strong, the people of Athens, being very faithful to the seafaring vocation, continued to worship the god Poseidon.
Also due to the contest between the war goddess Athena and the god Poseidon, a series of relief themes were drawn to the west of the city in what is called the Parthenon. When visitors arrive in the city, the first things they see in the city are these issues.
The myth of the contest between the goddess of war Athena and the god Poseidon according to specialists and researchers who are the confrontation of the settlers in the Mycenaean era and the immigrants who were arriving in the city of Athens, in the same way the city It was a great maritime power, defeating the Persian fleet in the sea battle of Salamis.
Build the walls of Troy
The god Poseidon along with his nephew the god Apollo offended the supreme god Zeus who as punishment condemned the God Poseidon together with the god Apollo to serve for a certain time the king of Troy who was called Laomedonte.
As he needed the services of these gods, he asked both divinities to the god Zeus, so that they would build the best and large walls so that human beings could not destroy them, in exchange for this the King of Troy Laomedonte offered them many rites and sacrifices, as well as great rewards.
After having built the great walls of Troy, King Laomedonte did not fulfill the promises offered to the gods, although they threatened the king but he ignored it, for which the god Poseidon saw a great monster towards the city of Troy sailor who attacked the city and ravaged the coast of Troy for a long time until Heracles arrived and killed the great sea monster.
Offspring of the god Poseidon
The wife of the god Poseidon was Amphitrite, a goddess of the calm sea who was the daughter of Nereus and Doris, with her he was the father of Bentesicime and Triton, in addition to the God Poseidon being the father of many Greek heroes, among them the great Theseus who arrived to be king of Athens.
He was also with a mortal woman named Tire who was the daughter of Salmoneo and his wife Alcídice, and she was married to Creteo and had a son named Aesón, but who she was in love with was Enipeo who was a river-god. .
That is why Tire always looked for Enipeo, but he fled from her, for which the god Poseidon disguised himself as Enipeo and filled the woman named Tire with much desire, in this way he was with Tire and from there the two heroes of Enipeo were born. names Pelias and Neleus.
Then he had an affair with Alope, a woman of great beauty, daughter of Cerción, from that situation the great Attic hero Hipotoonte was born, who was a king who possessed great strength, for this situation and Cersión, not knowing, took his daughter and buried her alive. When the god Poseidon found out, he turned Alope into a fountain that was near Eleusis.
In a dangerous situation, the god Poseidon rescued Amimone, one of the daughters of Danao from a satyr who were lustful creatures and after rescuing her, he had a son with her whom he named Nauplio, and then he raped Ceneus, the god Poseidon allowed him to become a man so as not to go through that situation again.
It should be noted that not all the children of the god Poseidon were human, since there is an archaic myth where he persecuted Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, but this goddess rejected him, and was transformed into a beautiful mare and in this way to be able to hide in the herd of horses there was.
But the god Poseidon realized what the goddess of agriculture Demeter did and he also became a great stallion and at one point he was able to rape the goddess transformed into a mare, they had a horse that they gave the name of Arion , this horse had the power and the gift of speech.
According to him, he is a descendant of the golden fleece that is born as a result of the relationship between the god Poseidon and Theophane, who was a heroine of great beauty, he turned her into a sheep and he became a great ram. In a complicated situation, the god Poseidon raped Medusa on the floor of a sacred temple that was held for the war goddess Athena.
For this situation, they punished Medusa by turning her into a great monster after they decapitated her from her neck, Perseus, Chrysaor and Pegasus emerged, the other descendants that the god Poseidon had were the Cyclops Polyphemus and the Aloads.
The epithets that the god Poseidon had
In Greek mythology the god Poseidon was known in various ways, for example in the city of Egas and in the city of Euboea he was known as the Aegean God Poseidon, and they built a great temple on top of the hill. As he liked horses very much and had a great relationship with these animals, the god Poseidon was known under the epithet of Poseidon Hipius.
During the historical period the god Poseidon was known as Enosichthon, Seis Chthon and Ennosigeo, all meaning 'shaker of the earth' and alluding to his role in causing earthquakes.
In literature and art
in Greek mythology and Greek art the god Poseidon is pictured driving a chariot that is pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could run over water.
Although they also associated it with dolphins for being very intelligent animals, and for the three-toothed spears it used to fish, which was also known as a trident. The god Poseidon stayed in his palace which was located at the bottom of the Ocean which was made of various gems and a lot of coral.
In the novel of The Iliad written by the poet Homer, the god Poseidon is part of the Greeks and helps them and in the Trojan War this god takes an active part against the Trojan forces, but it is necessary to emphasize that in Book XX he rescues Aeneas who was a hero from the Trojans. After he surrenders before the hero Achilles.
In the novel the Odyssey also written by the poet Homer, the god Poseidon has a great hatred towards the hero Odysseus, since he had blinded his son the Cyclops Polyphemus, due to this situation Odysseus cannot reach his home in Ithaca to see his beloved Penelope. But ultimately, thanks to the intelligence of the hero Odysseus, he manages to appease the wrath of the god Poseidon and manages to reach his home.
In the Aeneid the god Neptune in Roman mythology is angry with the Trojans but he is not as malicious as Juno and in book I of this novel he manages to rescue the Trojan fleet from certain death. Since the goddess Juno wishes to sink it.
A hymn to the god Poseidon is created that is included among the Homeric hymns since it is an invocation to the god Poseidon and is written with an introduction that has seven lines that are addressed to the god Poseidon since he can move both in the sea as on land.
In this way he is a god who knows the depths of the sea, but he is also the lord of Helicon and the great city of Egas. He also stands out for having two passions or a double nature as an Olympic god who is a horse tamer and for being a great savior of ships. The poetry that was given to the god Poseidon is as follows:
“Motionless, silently illuminated,
and at the same time in action, bold warrior
that unites dock serenity
fury of the sea over the cliff.
Rebellious and steep horizon,
or perhaps antagonistic sailboat
focused is on his target, before the steel
of the trident that Hephaestus has forged for him.
It is not the god that in his chariot of tritons
sails the seas, nor the one that in the corners
enjoy his palace of corals
of the Nereids to whom she offers shelter.
This is the god who has an enemy,
and with his own strength he destroys it”
The god Poseidon today
In the XNUMXst century, in the world of the arts, the god Poseidon has been portrayed numerous times, as a general rule the god Poseidon is known as the god of the sea and his other applications are being forgotten.
In the Disney movie that was made in 1997, the god Poseidon has a secondary role since he only appears as a filler character in the movie, and is characterized as an old man with a white beard who has a pigtail. fish.
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