Lord of the Sea, the Earth-shaker
Poseidon, son of Cronus and Rhea, drew the sea when the three brothers divided the cosmos. With the trident forged for him by the Cyclopes he stirs storms, splits rocks, and shakes the ground — Homer calls him 'Earth-shaker.' He drives a chariot drawn by golden-maned horses across the waves from a palace in the depths of the Aegean. The horse is his sacred animal: tradition credits him with creating the first horse, and the winged Pegasus was his offspring by Medusa.
His wrath drives the plot of the Odyssey: after Odysseus blinded the god's son, the Cyclops Polyphemus, Poseidon kept the hero wandering the seas for ten years before he reached home. He lost the contest for Attica to Athena, leaving on the acropolis rock the salt spring struck by his trident. Sailors sacrificed bulls to him before a voyage, and the Isthmian games at Corinth were held in his honor. His temple at Cape Sounion, built around 440 BCE, still stands in white marble on a cliff above the Aegean.
