(European mythology)

A leading member of the Greek pantheon. The son of Kronos and Rhea, and the brother of Zeus and Hades, Poseidon was the ruler of the waves, a sea god liable to attacks of tempestuous rage. He rode the deep in a chariot pulled by splendid golden sea-horses. In his hands was a mighty trident, a weapon capable of stirring the waters to fury, like the sudden Aegean storm. Poseidon was a turbulent, independent deity, midway in function between the docile partner of the earth mother and the dominant sky father type. He sired numerous sea creatures of an equine nature, his wife being the sea goddess Amphitrite. Together with Apollo, he is said to have built the walls of Troy. In the Odysseus, composed by Homer about 850 BC, he is represented as the implacable foe of Odysseus, who had blinded his one-eyed son Polyphemus.

Poseidon was particularly feared as the bringer of earthquakes, to which the Aegean today remains prone. In consequence, ‘the earth-shaker’ received generous offerings from cities and individuals. The Romans identified Poseidon with Neptune, an Italian water god.

A Dictionary of World Mythology. Copyright © Arthur Cotterell 1979, 1986, 2003. All rights reserved.