zeus poseidon and hades vs kronos sea of monsters

Onchestus had a curious ceremony whereby horses pulled a riderless chariot through the site, and if it crashed, then the chariot was dedicated to the god. Poseidon had an oracle at Taenarum in Laconia and important sanctuaries at the small island of Calauria off Troezen and Onchestus in Boeatia. The god was honoured by boat races held at the cape once every four years.Īs a protector during earthquakes (despite the fact he was also seen as their cause), the god was often appealed to as Poseidon Asphaleios, and a temple to the god was built on Rhodes for just that purpose. Sounion was another strategic site close to the god, and his 5th-century BCE temple still stands on the promontory which overlooks ships entering the Saronic gulf. Corinth was also one of the earliest cities to connect Poseidon to maritime trade and navigation as indicated by votive clay plaques dating to the Archaic period. The games were held every two years in the spring and, like the Olympic Games, athletes, charioteers, and horse racers competed for prizes, in this case, a prestigious crown of first pine and then, in the Classical period, of dry celery. The god was particularly revered here and was the focus of horse races and other events at the Panhellenic Isthmian games which were held in his honour near Corinth. In the Greek religion, Poseidon was said to hold the Isthmus of Corinth in special regard probably as it was an important sea route. For this reason, it made sense that one god looked after all these waterways which encircled the earth (even if many rivers and springs had their own specific personifications in mythology). Poseidon is most often described by both Homer and Hesiod as 'deep sounding Earth-shaker', the 'dark-haired one' and 'encircler of the earth.' The latter title reminds that many ancients believed that all waterways were connected and that the land floated on water. In revenge for the blinding of his son Polyphemus, he cursed Odysseus to wander the sea for ten years.

Poseidon also features in Homer's Odyssey as the nemesis of Odysseus. However, he does also give aid to the Trojan hero Aeneas in order to escape from the fearsome Achilles.

The god is a major protagonist in the Trojan War of Homer's Iliad, where he supports the Greeks and gives them either encouragement with rousing speeches, often in disguise as various Achaean personalities, or actually leads them in battle with flashing sword. Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA) In Hesiod & Homer Minos' failure to sacrifice the bull given as a gift by the god resulted in Poseidon bewitching Minos' wife Pasiphae into falling in love with the bull and the fruit of their amorous relationship was the half-man, half-bull creature which inhabited the labyrinth of Knossos.

Poseidon was himself responsible for another terrible creature - the Minotaur. Both Scylla and Charybdis would menace mariners who passed the Straits of Messina between Sicily and mainland Italy. Perhaps justifiably jealous of all these affairs, Poseidon's infatuation with Scylla, the daughter of the sea god Phorcys, led Amphitrite to cast some magic herbs in the girl's bath which turned her into a raging monster with twelve feet and six heads.

Most notable are Theseus (with Aithra), Polyphemus the Cyclops (whom Odysseus famously encountered on his lengthy return from the Trojan War), Orion the hunter (with the daughter of Minos), the flying horse Pegasus (after the rape of Medusa), the wild horse Arion, and Charybdis (with Gaia), the ship-eating sea monster which created terrible whirlpools. However, as with the other divinities, Poseidon fathered many other offspring with various partners. Two other children were Rhode and Benthesicyme. The god's most famous son with Amphitrite was Triton, who was half-man, half-fish. The god was particularly revered at Corinth & was the focus of the Panhellenic Isthmian games.

Zeus poseidon and hades vs kronos sea of monsters