Poseidon Essay Example for Free

Poseidon EssayGod of the sea, protector of all waters. Poseidon is the brother of Zeus. After the overthrow of their Father Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and Hades, some other brother, for shares of the valet. His prize was to become lord of the sea. He was widely worshiped by seamen. He married Amphitrite, a granddaughter of the Titan Oceanus.At one point he desired Demeter. To ascribe him off Demeter asked him to make the most beautiful animal that the world had ever seen. So to impress her Poseidon created the first horse. In some accounts his first attempts were unsuccessful and created a variety of other animals in his quest. By the time the horse was created his passion for Demeter had coo direct.His weapon is a trident, which can shake the earth, and shatter any object. He is stake only to Zeus in power amongst the gods. He has a difficult quarrelsome personality. He was greedy. He had a series of disputes with other gods when he assay to take over their cities.Posei don was the second son of Cronus and Rhea. In most accounts he is swallowed by Cronus at birth but later saved, with his other brothers and sisters, by Zeus. up to now 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 obscure him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which she gave to Cronus to devour.3According to John Tzetzes23 the kourotrophos, or nurse of Poseidon was Arne, who denied knowing where he was, when Cronus came searching tally to Diodorus Siculus24 Poseidon was raised by the Telchines on Rhodes, just as Zeus was raised by the Korybantes on Crete.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.The foundation of Athensgenus Athene became the patron goddes s of the city of Athens after a competitionwith Poseidon. Yet Poseidon remained a numinous presence on the Acropolis in the form of his surrogate, Erechtheus.2 At the radioactive decay 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 hand 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,26 whereas Athena offered them an olive tree.Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, ca 440 BCThe 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. After the fight, exasperate at his loss, Poseidon sent a monstrous flood to the Attic Plain, to punish the Athenians for not choosing him. The depression made by Poseidons trident an d filled with salt water was contact by the northern hall of the Erechtheum, remaining open to the air. In cult, Poseidon was identified with Erechtheus, Walter Burkert noted the myth turns this into a temporal-causal sequence in his anger at losing, Poseidon led his son Eumolpus against Athens and killed Erectheus.27The 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 collide with 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 Iranian fleet at Salamis Island in a sea battle.The walls of TroyPoseidon and Apollo, having offended Zeus by their rebellion in Heras scheme, were temporarily stripped of their divine dresser and sent to serve King Laomedon of Troy. He had them build huge wal ls around the city and promised to reward them well, a promise he then refused to fulfill. Invengeance, beforehand the Trojan War, Poseidon sent a sea monster to attack Troy. The monster was later killed by Heracles.Consorts and childrenPoseidon on an Attic kalyx krater (detail), first half of the 5th vitamin C BC. 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 pigboates. He is sentiment 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 inclination for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus, and from their union were born the heroes Pelias and Neleus, oppose boys. Poseidon also had an affair with Alope, his granddaughter through Cercyon, his son a nd King of Eleusis, begetting the Attic hero Hippothoon. Cercyon had his daughter buried hot 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.28567Not all of Poseidons children were human. In an archaic myth, Poseidon once pursued Demeter. She spurned his advances, turning herself into a mare so that she could pelt in a herd of horses he saw through the deception and became a stallion and captured her. Their child w as a horse, Arion, which was capable of human speech. Poseidon also had internal intercourse with Medusa on the floor of a temple to Athena.29Medusa was then changed into a monster by Athena. When she was later beheaded by the hero Perseus, Chrysaor and Pegasus emerged from her neck. There is also Triton (the merman), Polyphemus (the cyclops) and, finally, Alebion and Bergion and Otos and Ephialtae (the giants).29