Bestiary · Sea God / Earthquake God
Poseidon
Poseidon: the Greek god of the sea, earthquakes, and horses. He contested Athens with Athena and lost. He harassed Odysseus for a decade. His Mycenaean temple at Pylos predates Homer.
Primary Sources
- Homer, Iliad and Odyssey: Poseidon at Troy, pursues Odysseus
- Linear B tablets from Pylos: po-se-da-o as chief deity
- Pausanias, Description of Greece: Temple of Poseidon at Sounion
Poseidon’s name appears on Linear B tablets from the palace at Pylos as po-se-da-o. At Pylos, he received more offerings than any other deity, including Zeus. The Mycenaean Poseidon may have been the chief god of that palace. His demotion to Zeus’s brother happened later, as the mythology consolidated.
The Division
After the defeat of the Titans, the three brothers divided the cosmos by lot. Zeus received the sky, Hades the underworld, Poseidon the sea. The earth and Olympus were shared. Poseidon’s domain included not only the oceans but earthquakes: his title “Earth-Shaker” (Ennosigaios) reflects the Greek understanding that the sea god controlled the ground itself, which the Greeks experienced as a landscape that moved without warning.
Odysseus
Poseidon’s most sustained appearance in literature is as Odysseus’s antagonist. Odysseus blinded the cyclops Polyphemus, Poseidon’s son, and Poseidon spent the next ten years driving Odysseus off course. He wrecked ships, raised storms, and blocked every attempt to return home. The Odyssey is, in part, a story about what it means to have offended the god who controls the water that separates you from everything you love.
The Horse
Poseidon created the horse. Different versions give different accounts: he struck the earth with his trident and the first horse sprang from the ground, or he mated with Demeter in horse form and produced the divine horse Arion. The connection between the sea god and horses is Mycenaean. At Pylos, Poseidon received horse sacrifices. The association predates Homer by centuries and has no clear explanation. The sea and the horse were joined in the Greek mind before anyone wrote down why.