Poseidon

A statue of Poseidon in the port of Copenhagen.

In Greek mythology, Poseidon was the god of the sea and one of the Twelve Olympians. He is the brother of Zeus, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. His home is Mount Olympus and all the water on earth. He is the god of the sea and earthquakes, the cyclops and of horses. The horse was a creature of enormous importance to the Indo-European migrants; it provided transport, food, clothing and was a visible symbol of fertility.

He had many love affairs, although he was married to Amphitrite, a sea goddess, with whom he had a son, Triton, and possibly two daughters. In some stories, he is believed to have been eaten by his father Cronos. In other versions his mother Rhea saves him by feeding her husband a small horse wrapped in a blanket. When he was displeased, he would throw down his Trident and cause earthquakes. He was also called the "Sea Swimmer", the "Earth Shaker", and "Father of many heroes". He was very strong and masculine. Poseidon also was said to have created horses.

He was believed to be in a relationship with Medusa until Athena found them in her temple and turned Medusa into an ugly woman with snakes for hair and eyes that turn people to stone.

Poseidon’s father was the titan Cronus, his mother was Rhea. Poseidon was a brother of Zeus; Zeus was the king of the gods. Poseidon's personalities were very rude and mean, he shook the earth when he was angry with his powerful trident. Poseidon lived in two palaces he mostly lived in the one that was underwater but in big meeting's he was in the palace on mount Olympus where all the other gods lived. Poseidon was called the earth shaker as he could shake the earth. Though Poseidon was the god of the seas he could control the land to. That is why the sailors worshiped and prayed for him.

Poseidon had many sons and daughters, who were called demigods. Demigods were like their fathers and mothers, they had the same powers but not as strong as their parents. Zeus Poseidon and Hades made a pact called the big three, which the rule was that they could not have any sons or daughters anymore. The demigods that they had before were so powerful that they could be dangerous to the Olympians. Poseidon had other sons and daughters secretly, which was very dangerous but the demigods did not overwhelm the gods. Before any of this happened there was Gaia mother earth. Gaia married Uranus who was the god of the heavens, they had babies who were called the titans, and then the titans had the gods. Cronus was afraid that the gods would take control of him so he ate every god he had except for one. Cronus's wife had a baby and when Cronus was going to eat the god His wife slipped a rock into the blanket instead. Cronus's wife sent the baby away to Gaia. The babies name was Zeus, Zeus got angry at Cronus for swallowing his brothers and sisters so Zeus fought Cronus and won all the gods were out and Poseidon was one of them. That was how Poseidon was born.

Poseidon fell in love with the horrible monster medusa. When Medusa looked at someone the person she looked at turned to stone. The Hero Perseus killed medusa, and when she was killed, a horse called Pegasus sprang out of medusa’s head.

Related pages

• Neptune – Roman mythology version of Poseidon