His signature weapon was the trident, a three-pronged spear with which he did battle, mastered the sea, and caused earthquakes.Ī god of horses, Poseidon was often pictured riding a chariot drawn by hippocampi-part-horse, part-snake creatures that glided across the waves. Poseidon was usually depicted as a mature god, powerfully built and bearded. These include Kyanochaitēs (“dark-haired”), Pelagios (“belonging to the sea”), and even Phykios (“full of seaweed”).įinally, Poseidon was also called Hippios (“horseman”) because of his close association with horses. Other epithets attest to Poseidon’s role as god of the sea. He was also called Gaiēochos (“he who holds the earth”). Poseidon’s most important epithets were related to his capacity not as god of the sea but as god of earthquakes-hence his titles Enosichthōn or Ennosigaios (“earth-shaker”).

Poseidon’s Roman equivalent was called Neptune.

There were a few dialectic variations of Poseidon’s name in ancient Greece. Nowadays many scholars consider the origins of the name Poseidon to be pre-Greek, and possibly not even Indo-European. Indeed, Poseidon’s main Bronze Age cult title was E-ne-si-da-o-ne, or “Earth-Shaker.” 3 This association may be misleading, however, as none of the early Mycenaean references to Poseidon indicated that the god held any association with the ocean, water, or sea. The second interpretation suggests a link to the word dâwon, or “water,” which would make “Poseidon” translate to “lord of the waters.” This was an attractive translation as it linked Poseidon's name with the sea. Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain The Return of Neptune by John Singleton Copley (ca. Indeed, the oldest Mycenaean Greek references to Poseidon pointed to an intimate-though imprecise-relationship with Demeter, and possibly Persephone. One interpretation holds that it comes from the root da-, meaning “earth” or “land,” which would make “Poseidon” translate to “lord of the earth,” or perhaps even “husband of the earth.” This latter translation indicated an association with the earth goddess Demeter. Some uncertainty surrounds the second linguistic element of Poseidon’s name. Both words mean “husband,” “lord,” or “master.” The first of these is the Greek word posis, itself derived from the Proto-Indo-European root * pótis. The name “Poseidon” likely has roots in two distinct words.

Originally written in a script called Linear B, which predates the Greek alphabet, the name appears in Mycenaean texts as Po-se-da-o or Po-se-da-wo-ne. Poseidon was present in Greek religion from the earliest times: he was already well attested in the Mycenaean period (ca. Stories of Poseidon provided the Greeks with some illusion of control over the one domain they could never fully master-the sea. He was also well known for his disruptive influence over human affairs in Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey. An instigator, a firebrand, and a rebel, Poseidon figured prominently in Greek mythology thanks to his resistance to Zeus’ control over the pantheon. Poseidon was as unruly as the seas he was thought to control. 1 Worshipped across the entirety of the Greek world, Poseidon had particularly strong followings in seafaring city-states such as Athens and Corinth.

Although he was chiefly known as god of the sea and seafarers, his power extended to other domains, including earthquakes and horses/horsemanship. One of the chief Olympian deities, Poseidon was a defiant god whose power was second only to that of Zeus. Poseidon turned his anger on the Greek hero after Odysseus and his crew blinded the cyclops Polyphemus, who was Poseidon’s son.

Poseidon god