Check out his flowing beard and ruddy complexion. Sea air is obviously good for the libido. We learn of this grudge through Homers two great works the Iliad and the Odyssey. The most famous of these is Hera tormenting Herakles throughout his life, but perhaps the second-best known is Poseidons grudge against Odysseus. Demeter presented him with Arion and Despoena. In Greek mythology, the Gods often held grudges against men. With Iphimedeia he produced the ill-fated Aloadae twins Otus and Ephialtes. His wife is the reluctant Amphitrite but he still leaps from one lusty affair to the next. He’s the father of many gods and heroes - and of course horses - including Theseus, Triton, Polyphemus, Orion and Pegasus. It’s hard to image this burly old salt cooing over a pony, but perhaps he’s not such a bluff rugged cove as his image suggests. This detailed structural analysis, with its insights into the circumstances and meaning of the Odyssey's composition, will lead to a new understanding of the Homeric epics and the tradition they evoked.After the Olympian Gods kicked out the Titans, this crusty old seagod took charge of the waves while his brothers Zeus and Hades plumped for the earthy bits.įeared by sailors, he can cause storms and shipwrecks with the aid of his three-pronged trident, but if he’s in a good mood he can soothe the sea to sleep.įor reasons that have so far eluded us, Poseidon the Sea God is well-known for his love of horses. He then uses this polarity to explain instances of Odyssean self-reference, allusions to other epic traditions-in particular the Iliad-and interaction between the poem and its performance context in Athenian civic ritual.
Focusing on the prologue and the Apologoi (Books 9-12), Cook shows how the traditional Greek polarity between force and intelligence informs the Odyssean narrative at all levels of composition. Specifically he argues that the Odyssey achieved its form as a written text within the context of Athenian civic cults during the reign of Peisistratos. Cook also broadens the scope of this intertextual approach to include the relationship of Homeric epic to ritual. The Romans identified him with Neptune.Ī study in poetic interaction, The Odyssey in Athens explores the ways in which narrative structure and parallels within and between epic poems create or disclose meaning.
He was the husband of Amphitrite, who bore him Triton, and by others he fathered many more sons, who usually turned out to be strong, brutal men (like Orion) or monsters (like Polyphemus). With Poseidon, she is became the mother of 1 son, 3 daughters Triton, Rhode, Kymopoleia, Benthesikyme. Amphitrite is the wife of Poseidon, thus making her Queen of the Seas. She is the eldest daughter of Nereus and Doris (or Okeanos and Tethys). His grudge against Odysseus is one of the themes of the Odyssey. Amphitrite (Greek: ) is the beautiful goddess of the seas, springs, aquatic life. When Laomedon failed to pay him for building the walls of Troy, Poseidon sent a sea monster to ravage the Troad and years later vengefully assisted the Greeks in the Trojan War. He carried the trident, with which he could split boulders and cause earthquakes. Poseidon was represented as extremely powerful, with a violent and vengeful disposition. In Thessaly and other areas he was important as Hippios, god of horses, and was the father of Pegasus. He was worshiped especially in connection with navigation but as the god of fresh waters he also was worshiped as a fertility god. After the fall of the Titans, Poseidon was allotted the sea. (pōsī'dӘn), in Greek religion and mythology, god of the sea, protector of all waters.