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THE REALM OF THE WATER. AQUATIC PRIMORDIAL BEINGS&OFFSPRING. PONTUS. PONTUS. Pontus was a pre-Olympian sea-god, and both son and husband of Gaia. She brought Pontus out of herself without coupling. Their children were Nereus, Thaumas, Phorchys, Ceto and Eurybia.
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PONTUS Pontus was a pre-Olympian sea-god, and both son and husband of Gaia. She brought Pontus out of herself without coupling. Their children were Nereus, Thaumas, Phorchys, Ceto and Eurybia. With Thalassa, he was the father of Telchines.
NEREUS He was was the ancient god of the bounty of the sea. He was the eldest son of Pontus and Gaia. He dwellt in the depths of Aegean sea with his fifty Nereid daughters whose mother was Doris.She was the daugter of Oceanus and Tethys. His form was liquid, allowing him to change his shape at will. He was depicted as an old man bearing a staff and accompanied by Nereids. Sometimes he was depicted with the tail of serpentine in place of legs, but he was always shown clothed. He was gentle, wise, true and virtuous.
NEREIDS Nereids were the sea nymphs and the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. They often accompany Poseidon and were always helpful towards sailors. They were particularly associated with the Aegean Sea, where they dwelt with their father in the depths within a silvery cave.The most notable of them were Amphitrite and Thetis.
AMPHITRITE Amphitritewas a sea goddess. She was a daughter of Nereus and Doris and thus a Nereid according to Hesiod’s Theogony. However; she was the daughter of Oceanus and Thetys and thus an Oceanid, according to Apollodorus.Amphitrite’s offsprings were seals and dolphins. By her, Poseidon had a son, Triton and a daughter, Rhode.
THETIS Silver-footed Thetis is a sea nymph and one of the fifty Nereids. She was the daugter of Nereus and Doris and the granddaughter of Tethys. She played a central role in the religious practices and in the imagination of certain Greeks. Thetis was fated to bear a son who would be mightier than his father. Fearing from that, Zeus avoided mating with Thetis. Then she married with a mortal, Peleus and she bore one son, Achilles.
OCEANUS Oceanus, one of the Titans, is the son of Uranus and Gaia.He is sometimes considered to be at the origin of all things. He is the god of backward flowing river Ocean which bounds the earth and from which all rivers, every sea, all the springs and wells flow. In order to reach the Underworld it is necessary to cross this river…
From Odyssey: "..when in your ship you have now crossed the stream of Oceanus, where is a level shore and the groves of Persephone...beach your boat there by Ocean's swirling streams and march on into Hades' dark house." [Circe to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 10.510]
THETYS Thetys was a Titaness. She was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia. She was sea goddess who was both sister and wife of Oceanus. She was mother of the chief rivers of the world such as the Nile, the Alpheus and the Maeander. During the war against Titans, Tethys raised Rhea. Hera wanted her help when she wasn’t pleased with the placement of Callisto and Arcas in the sky. Then she caused the constellations to forever circle in the sky and never drop from the horizon. So they are around the north and south pole.
OCEANIDS The Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanusand Tethys. Each of these nymphswas the patronessof a particular spring, river, ocean, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud.
Poseidon(Neptune) was the great god of waters in general and of the sea in particular. He was the son of Cronus and Rhea. He didn’t share the fate of his other brothers and sisters who were eaten by Cronus. He was saved by his mother, Rhea. She concealed him among a flock of lambs. Poseidon was raised by the Telchines on Rhodes, just as Zeus was raised by the Korybantes on Crete. He was ferocious and god of earthquakes. By a mere stroke of his trident he may destroy and kill…
Poseidon and Scylla Poseidon made advances to Scylla,the daughter of Phorcys and Hecate. Amphitrite became 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.
Poseidon’s contest with Athena Athena and Poseidon were said to have vied for control of Athens and 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. Angry at losing, Poseidon flooded the Thriasian plain.
Attributes and Epithets of Poseidon Attributes: bird ,trident, fish and horse. Epithets: savior of sailors, the bull of the sea, creator of horses, and the rock.
TRITON Triton is the MESSENGER god of the deep. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. He is represented as a merman, having upper body of human and the tail of a fish. Like his father, he carried a trident. However, Triton’s special attribute was a twisted conch shell on which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves. He dwellt with his parents in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. Triton was the father of Pallas and foster parent to the goddess Athena.
PROTEUS Proteus is an early sea-god, one of the several deities whom Homer calls‘the old man of the sea’. His name suggests ‘the first’. He became the son of Poseidon in the Olympian Thegony (Odessey), or of Nereus and Doris, or of Oceanus and a Naiad. He was made the herdsman of Poseidon’s seals. He can foretell the future.
GLAUCUS According to Ovid, Glaucus began life as a mortal fisherman living in the Boetian city of Anthedon. He is the son of Poseidon and an unnamed mortal woman. He discovered by accident a magical herb which could bring the fish he caught back to life, and decided to try eating it. The herb made him immortal, but also caused him to grow fins instead of arms and a fish's tail instead of legs forcing him to dwell forever in the sea. Glaucus was initially upset by this side-effect, but Oceanus and Tethys received him well and he was quickly accepted among the deities of the sea, learning from them the art of prophecy.
PHORCYS He was a sea-god who presided over the hidden dangers of the deep.He was the son of Pontus and Gaia. He and his wife Ceto were also the gods of all the large creatures which inhabited the depths of the sea.Their children were dangerous sea monsters: Scylla, Ladon, and Ekhidna.
Ceto Ceto was a hideous aquatic monster. She is the daughter of Gaia and Pontus. She was the personification of the dangers of the sea, unknown terrors and bizarre creatures. Her husband was Phorcys and they had many children, collectively known as the Phorcydes.
SCYLLA Scylla was a monster that live on either side of a narrow channel of water. The two sides of the strait are within an arrow's range of each other, so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis will pass too close to Scylla and vice versa. The phrase between Scylla and Charybdishas come to mean being ina state where one is between two dangers and moving away from one will cause you to be in danger from the other.Sheis a horribly sea monster, with six long necks equipped with grisly heads, each of which contained three rows of sharp teeth. Her body consisted of twelve canine legs and a cat's tail. She was one of the children of Phorcys.
CHARYBDIS Charybdis was a sea monster and the daughter of Poseidon and Gaia. She takes form as a monstrous mouth. She swallows huge amounts of water three times a day and then belches them back out again creating whirlpools. Charybdis was originally a naiad, sea-nymphwho stole Heracles' cattle until Zeus became angry and threw her into the sea, and as punishment, turned her into a sea monster.
NAIADS The Naiads were a type of nymphs who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, and brooks. They were associated with fresh water. The essence of a naiad was bound to her spring, so if a naiad's body of water dried, she died. The genealogy of the Naiads varies according to geographic regions and literary sources. Naiads were either daughters of Zeus, daughters of various river gods, or simply part of the vast family of the Titan Oceanus.
SOURCES • http://en.wikipedia.org • www.pantheon.org • http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/epithets.html • www.chevron26.com/mythology/egotth.html • http://waltm.net/nymphlst.htm • http://www.mythinglinks.org/ct~waterdeities.html • www.theoi.com • www.infoplease.com • www.blueroebuck.com • www.timelessmyths.com/classical/nymphs.html
PREPARED BY A.BAHAR BOZKAYA