CLA204H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Matricide, Cella, Wild Beasts
Document Summary
We have already met some of these many deities of the sea. Poseidon [po-seye"don] (neptune) became established as the mighty god of the seas. Pontus [pon"tus], or pontos ( sea ), produced by gaia in the first stages of creation. Oceanus [o-see"an-us], or okeanos, the stream of ocean, and his mate tethys, titans who produced thousands of children, the oceanids [oh-see"a-nidz]. Triton [treye"ton], son of poseidon and amphitrite, a merman, human above the waist, fish-shaped below (many male deities of the deep are often so depicted). His most distinguishing characteristic was that he blew on a conch shell and thus he was known as the trumpeter of the sea. Proteus [proh"te-us], a pre-olympian deity who became an attendant or son of poseidon and amphitrite, was an old man of the sea who could foretell the future and could also change his shape at will.
