Poseidon, the great god of waters in general and of the sea in particular, was by no means the first or only such divinity for the Greeks. As we have seen, Pontus (the Sea) was produced by Ge in the initial stages of creation; and two of the Titans, Oceanus and Tethys, bore thousands of children, the Oceanids. In addition Pontus mated with his mother, Ge, and begat Nereus, the eldest of his children, who was gentle, wise, and true, an old man of the sea with the gift of prophecy. Nereus in turn united with Doris (an Oceanid) and they had fifty daughters, the Nereids; three of these mermaids should be singled out here: Thetis, Galatea, and Amphitrite. We have already mentioned that Thetis was destined to bear a son mightier than his father. Zeus learned this secret from Prometheus and avoided mating with Thetis; she married instead a mortal named Peleus, who was hard pressed to catch his bride. For Thetis possessed the power of changing shape and transformed herself into a variety of states (e.g., a bird, tree, tigress) in rapid succession, but eventually she was forced to succumb. Peleus and Thetis celebrated their marriage in great ceremony and they had a son, Achilles, who did indeed become mightier than his father. Galatea, another Nereid, was loved by the Cyclops, Polyphemus, a son of Poseidon. Ovid's account (Metamorphoses 13. 750- 897) is perhaps the most famous version of their story, a touching rendition that plays upon the incongruity of the passion of the monstrous and boorish giant for the delicate nymph. She was repelled by his attentions and loved Acis, a handsome son of Faunus and a sea-nymph. Polyphemus, overcome by emotion, attempted to mend his savage ways; he combed his hair with a rake and cut his beard with a scythe and sang out his heart to the tune of a shepherd's pipe. But his love turned to rage when he found Acis and Galatea in each other's arms. With a roar he announced that this would be their last embrace. The lovers were terrified; Galatea jumped into the sea and Acis took to flight.

The Cyclops, in hot pursuit, picked up a huge rock and hurled it at his rival, who was crushed to death. The trickle of his blood was turned to water as Acis became transformed into the river that bears his name. The third Nereid, Amphitrite, is important mainly as the wife of Poseidon; like her sister Thetis she proved a reluctant bride, but Poseidon finally was able to win her. As husband and wife they play roles very much like those enacted by Zeus and Hera; Poseidon has a weakness for women, and Amphitrite with good cause is angry and vengeful. They had a son, Triton, a merman, human above the waist, fish-shaped below. He is often depicted as blowing a conch shell, a veritable trumpeter of the sea; he can change shape at will. The sea divinity Proteus, probably another of the older generation of gods, is often named as the attendant of Poseidon or even his son. Like Nereus, he is an old man of the sea and can foretell the future; he can also change shape. It is easy to see how the identities of Nereus, Proteus, and Triton could be merged. Confusion among sea divinities and duplication of their characteristics are everywhere apparent. As far as Proteus is concerned, we have two classic accounts of his nature and his powers: those of Homer (Odyssey 4. 363-570) and Vergil (Georgics 4. 386-528). Let us isolate the essentials of Homer's account. Menelaus, king of Sparta, on his return voyage from Troy, was unduly detained on an island off the coast of Egypt; in his distress (for provisions were almost gone) he was anxious to know why he was prevented from returning home. As it turned out, he and his men would not be able to proceed on their way until great sacrifices had been made to Zeus and the other immortals. But Menelaus learned about this fact only after he had consulted Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea; and it was Proteus' daughter, Eidothea, who took pity upon him and gave him directions necessary for finding out the truth. Menelaus and three of his best companions were to lie in ambush to ensnare Proteus. Here is how Menelaus tells of Eidothea's assistance in tricking her father, the immortal and infallible Old Man of the Sea, who can readily assume countless changes of form (Odyssey 4. 435-50): Eidothea dived down into the vast cavern of the sea and brought out of the depths four skins of seals-all were freshly skinned-for she was planning to trick her father. After hollowing out in the sea-sand four beds for us, she sat waiting; and we came right up to her. She placed us in our beds, one after the other, throwing a sealskin over each of us. A most horrible ambush this was; for the pernicious odor of the sea-nurtured seals was dreadfully oppressive.

For who would like to lie down beside a monster of the sea? But she herself helped us out and contrived a great boon: she brought ambrosia and placed it under each of our noses; its very sweet fragrance eliminated the sealsmell. All morning we waited, steadfast in spirit: the seals emerged from the sea in a swarm and then they lay down side by side to sleep on the shore of the sea. At midday the Old Man came forth from the deep and sought out his well-nourished seals; he went round and counted them all; in his reckoning we were the first, but he did not suspect any treachery. Thereupon he himself also lay down. And we rushed upon him with a shout and threw our arms about him; but the Old Man did not forget his devious arts. First off he became a thickly maned lion, and then a serpent, a leopard, and a great boar. And he became liquid water and a tree with lofty branches. But we held on to him firrnly with steadfast spirits. Finally the devious Proteus grew weary and answered Menelaus' questions about his return home. Poseidon is similar in appearance to his brother Zeus, a majestic bearded figure, but he is generally more severe and rough; besides, he carries the trident, a three-pronged fork resembling a fisherman's spear. By his very nature Poseidon is ferocious. He is called the supporter of the earth but the earthshaker as well, and as a god of earthquakes he exhibits his violence by the rending of the land and the surge of the sea. By a mere stroke of his trident he may destroy and kill. His relentless anger against Odysseus for the blinding of Polyphemus provides a dominant theme in the Odyssey. The origins of Poseidon are much disputed; if his trident represents what was once a thunderbolt, then he was in early times a god of the sky. More attractive is the theory that he began as a male spirit of fertility, a god of earth who sent up springs. This fits well with his association with horses and bulls (he either creates them or makes them appear) and explains the character of some of his affairs.

He mates with Demeter in the form of a stallion; he pursued her at the time when she was searching for her daughter, and her ruse of changing into a mare to escape him was to no avail. Thus we have the union of the male and female powers of fertility. The result is the birth of a daughter and the wonderful horse Arion who belonged to Adrastus. Similarly he united with Ge, and they produced Antaeus, a giant encountered by Heracles. But it should be remembered that standard epithets of the sea are "barren" and "unharvested" as opposed to the fecundity of the land. The suggestion that Poseidon's horses are the mythical depiction of the whitecaps of the waves is not convincing, at least in terms of origins. Poseidon is also violent in his loves. He made advances to Scylla, the daughter of Phorcys and Hecate. Amphitrite was jealous and threw magic herbs into Scylla's bathing place. Thus Scylla was transformed into a terrifying monster, encircled with a ring of dogs' heads; her home was a cave in the straits of Messina between Sicily and Italy. With her was Charybdis, the daughter of Poseidon and Ge, a formidable and voracious ally whom Zeus had cast into the sea by his thunderbolt; three times a day she drew in mountains of water and spewed them out again. Scylla and Charybdis have been rationalized into natural terrors faced by mariners when they sailed through the straits. Certainly many of the tales about the gods of the waters are reminiscent of the yarns spun by fishermen, sailors, and the like, whose lives are involved with the sea and with travel. A famous story links Poseidon with Athena and the city-state of Athens. Athena and Poseidon were said to have vied for control of Athens and the surrounding territory, Attica. The contest took place on the Acropolis. Poseidon struck the rock with his trident and produced a salt spring, or according to another version a horse, the first that had ever been seen. Athena planted an olive tree, or more dramatically brought one forth from the ground by the touch of her spear. Athena was proclaimed the victor by a jury or judge variously identified as the gods, the people of Athens, or their king, Cecrops. The moment of the goddess' triumph was immortalized in stone on the west pediment of her great temple, the Parthenon. Poseidon, in his anger at losing, flooded the Thriasian plain, but he was appeased and continued to be worshiped in Athens particularly in conjunction with the Athenian hero, Erechtheus. In his beautiful temple on the Acropolis, just across from the Parthenon, it was said that the marks of the blow of his trident could still be seen, and nearby the olive tree that Athena had produced continued to grow.

The importance of the olive in Greek and especially Athenian economy and life is symbolized by Athena7s victory. In conclusion let us look at some other descendants of Pontus and Ge. Notice how elements of the fantastic and the grotesque appear again and again in the nature of the progeny associated with the sea and the deep. In addition to Nereus, Pontus and Ge had two more sons, Thaumas and Phorcys, and two daughters, Ceto and Eurybie. Thaumas mated with Electra (an Oceanid) and produced Iris and the Harpies. Iris is the goddess of the rainbow (her name means rainbow). She is a messenger of the gods as well, sometimes the particular servant of Hera, with Hermes' offices then confined to Zeus. She is fleet-footed and winged, as are her sisters, the Harpies, but they are much more violent in nature; in early sources they are conceived of as strong winds (their name means the snatchers), but later they are depicted in literature and in art as birdlike creatures with the faces of women, often terrifying and a pestilence to mankind. Phorcys and his sister Ceto produce two groups of children, the Graeae and the Gorgons. The Graeae (Aged Ones) are the three sisters, personifications of old age; their hair was gray from birth, but in their general aspect they appeared swanlike and beautiful. They had, however, only one eye and one tooth, which they were forced to share among themselves. They knew the way to their sisters, the Gorgons, also three in number (Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa), whose hair writhed with serpents. They were of such terrifying aspect that those who looked upon them were turned to stone. Gorgons are a favorite theme in Greek art, especially in the early period; they leer out most disconcertingly with a broad archaic smile, tongue protruding in the midst of a row of bristling teeth. Medusa is the most important Gorgon; Poseidon was her lover. When she was beheaded by Perseus she was pregnant; from her corpse sprang a winged horse, Pegasus, and a son, Chrysaor (He of the Golden Sword). Phorcys and Ceto also bore a dragon named Ladon; he helped the lovely Hesperides (Daughters of Evening), who guarded a wondrous tree that grew golden fruit far away in the West and passed their time in beautiful singing. Chrysaor mated with an Oceanid, Callirhoe, and produced the monsters Geryon and Echidna (half nymph and half snake). Echidna united with Typhon and bore Orthus (the hound of Geryon), Cerbems (the hound of Hades), the Lernaean Hydra, and the Chimaera. Echidna and Orthus produced the Theban sphinx and the Nemean lion. These monsters will be encountered later in saga.