Bestiary · Sea God / Water God
Neptune
Neptune: the Roman god of the sea and freshwater. His festival fell in July, the driest month, because Rome feared drought more than storms.
Primary Sources
- Varro, De Lingua Latina: Neptune as freshwater deity
- Virgil, Aeneid: Neptune calms the storm
Related Beings
Neptune’s oldest identity was not the sea. Varro, the first-century BCE scholar, connected Neptune to the Latin nubere (to cover, to cloud) and associated him with moisture and freshwater. The Neptunalia, his festival on July 23, fell at the hottest point of the Roman summer. Worshippers built shelters of tree branches, umbrae, and spent the day near water sources. The festival was about drought and irrigation, not ocean storms.
From River to Sea
As Rome grew from a city on the Tiber to the dominant naval power in the Mediterranean, Neptune absorbed the attributes of the Greek Poseidon: the trident, the horses, the earthquakes, and dominion over the sea. The transformation was political. A city that controlled the Mediterranean needed a sea god of appropriate stature. Neptune received it.
Actium
After Octavian (the future Augustus) defeated Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BCE, he built a temple to Neptune at the site. The victory was naval, and the god of the sea received the credit. The temple at Actium included a terrace displaying the bronze rams of captured enemy ships. Neptune became a god of imperial victory as much as of water.
The Trident
The trident was a fisherman’s tool before it was a god’s weapon. Neptune’s three-pronged spear could stir or calm the seas, split rocks, and create springs. When he struck the ground at Athens in competition with Athena, salt water sprang from the rock. Athena produced an olive tree. The Athenians chose Athena. Even in mythology, the sea lost to agriculture.