Lecture 8 - Sea Deities - "Classical Mythology" by Dr. Joseph Hughes at Missouri University
These are notes I took from the lecture series "Classical Mythology" by Dr. Joseph Hughes at Missouri University.
Lecture 8 - Sea Deities
They breed in huge numbers and have an appetite for destruction.
In the beginning Gaia gave birth to a number of gods, including Pontus, the ocean. She married her own son because there’s not many people around. Her kids were a bunch of sea monsters.
Pontus and Oceanus to Poseidon
There is also the god-titan Oceanus, who is the son of Gaia and Uranus is basically the same thing as Pontus. There’s not a tremendous progression and maybe the Greeks considered them to be the same thing. They both are deified parts of the physical world.
Poseidon is very anthropomorphic by comparison. He’s got a bad temper, a big ego, and a raging libido. This is another transition between animism and anthropomorphism. The animistic gods have tons and tons of children to account for all the living things that exist and all the forces that affect humans in the world. The anthropomorphic gods don’t really have groups of children, but more single, individual children. Though, compared to the human-like children of Zeus, Poseidon’s children are weird, like the sea monsters. Poseidon’s stories in Ancient Greece were very popular. If one can reason with the forces of nature, then man can get control of them. Therefore, it’s advantageous to make them more anthropomorphic than less. You can offer gifts and pray to Poseidon to persuade him.
Also the human likeness of these gods allows us to understand them, rather than the more incomprehensible nature deity. These stories are just more interesting to people and therefore easier to remember. As the philosophers begin to explain the world better in the 5th and 4th centuries BC, then these stories seem more unlikely, and they turn more into entertainment for the people. The gods had become too human or anthropomorphic to be believed. Even by 600BC most knew that the waters of the ocean were not guided by Poseidon. By 500 BC most believed that water was made by particles of water, the atomic theory of Democritus. Even though if someone as a skeptic and was in need that they would truly pray to the gods and did make it out of the storm was going to be a full believer.
Thaumus (means monster), Ceto (means sea monster), Nereus (old man of the sea type), Thaumus and Electra had a daughter Iris (means rainbow). Iris is an anthropomorphic goddess. She is the messenger of Hera. The rainbow is a bridge between Heaven and Earth and Iris is running messages back and forth.
Harpies are a bunch of evil sisters with the heads of women and the body of bird. They fly around bothering people and the swoop down and steal people’s food and poop on everything.
Phorcys and Ceto have three kids. Ladon is a dragon who lives out at the end of the world and guards the apples of the hisperaties. The girls (3 of them) Graeae, the goddesses of old age (the gray haired ones). They share one eye and one tooth. The Gorgons are three sisters who live out at the edge of the world. One of the them Medusa, who is ugly and had snakes for hair and one look at her face would turn you to stone. She was very beautiful until Poseiden’s wife caught them messing around together and she threw Medusa into a boiling pot which made her ugly.
Nereus and Doris have 50 daughters called the Nereids (daughters of Nereus).
Thetis is the young sea nymph who is destined to bear a child greater than their father. This is the one that Zeus was so desperately trying to find out her identity.
Children of Poseidon
Amphitrite is the wife of Poseidon. Poseidon is just an unfaithful as Zeus. Amphitrite has a scorned personality because of it. But Poseidon has to be a studly and fertile guy because the oceans are filled with living things.
Galatea was very beautiful and her name means (milky). She drew the attention of a cyclops named “polyphemus.” He falls in love with Galatea but he’s a big ugly disgusting cyclops. He cuts his hair into a mullet and trims his beard and then starts singing to her, but it’s horrible. Meanwhile a studly shepherd named Acis walking by and gets Galatea’s attention and they start getting intimate. The cyclops gets mad and squishes Acis with a rock and crushes his body. The blood that flows out of his body becomes the river Acis in Ancient Greece. That’s why it is so red.
Poseidon and Amphitrite have one legitimate son, named Triton. He is a mer-man and the trumpheter to announce Poseidon’s arrival. He is a popular figure people put in their fountains.
Another son of Poseidon is a horse named, “Arion.” Poseidon had sex with his sister, Demeter. To pursue her, he changes himself into a stallion. She sees that Poseidon is coming to her and she turns herself into a mare to get away. Poseidon catches her and impregnates her and they have a horse child. The two also have a daughter named, Charybdis. She is a whirlpool that sucks all the water down in the straits of miscina between sicily and Italy.
Poseidon and Medusa have a child who is a flying horse, named Pegasus. Perseus capitates Medusa and the horse pops out of the stump of her head, as well as a man with a golden sword named Chrysaor.
Poseidon and Gaia have a child named Antaeus the Giant, and who will be defeated in a wrestling match with Hercules.
Poseidon also have a cyclops son named, Polyphemus, who is the famous one from the Odyssey.
Athena was Zeus’ daughter. Zeus eats the mother while she is still pregnant and so Athena doesn’t really have a mother. There is a competition for who will get a city named after them. Poseidon makes a “horse-spring,” whatever that is, and Athena makes an olive tree. Of course Athena wins bc olive trees are very helpful and this becomes Athens. Poseidon gets mad a sends a flood to Athens.
Thaumus (means monster), Ceto (means sea monster), Nereus (old man of the sea type), Thaumus and Electra had a daughter Iris (means rainbow). Iris is an anthropomorphic goddess. She is the messenger of Hera. The rainbow is a bridge between Heaven and Earth and Iris is running messages back and forth.
Harpies are a bunch of evil sisters with the heads of women and the body of bird. They fly around bothering people and the swoop down and steal people’s food and poop on everything.
Phorcys and Ceto have three kids. Ladon is a dragon who lives out at the end of the world and guards the apples of the hisperaties. The girls (3 of them) Graeae, the goddesses of old age (the gray haired ones). They share one eye and one tooth. The Gorgons are three sisters who live out at the edge of the world. One of the them Medusa, who is ugly and had snakes for hair and one look at her face would turn you to stone. She was very beautiful until Poseiden’s wife caught them messing around together and she threw Medusa into a boiling pot which made her ugly.
Nereus and Doris have 50 daughters called the Nereids (daughters of Nereus).
Thetis is the young sea nymph who is destined to bear a child greater than their father. This is the one that Zeus was so desperately trying to find out her identity.
Children of Poseidon
Amphitrite is the wife of Poseidon. Poseidon is just an unfaithful as Zeus. Amphitrite has a scorned personality because of it. But Poseidon has to be a studly and fertile guy because the oceans are filled with living things.
Galatea was very beautiful and her name means (milky). She drew the attention of a cyclops named “polyphemus.” He falls in love with Galatea but he’s a big ugly disgusting cyclops. He cuts his hair into a mullet and trims his beard and then starts singing to her, but it’s horrible. Meanwhile a studly shepherd named Acis walking by and gets Galatea’s attention and they start getting intimate. The cyclops gets mad and squishes Acis with a rock and crushes his body. The blood that flows out of his body becomes the river Acis in Ancient Greece. That’s why it is so red.
Poseidon and Amphitrite have one legitimate son, named Triton. He is a mer-man and the trumpheter to announce Poseidon’s arrival. He is a popular figure people put in their fountains.
Another son of Poseidon is a horse named, “Arion.” Poseidon had sex with his sister, Demeter. To pursue her, he changes himself into a stallion. She sees that Poseidon is coming to her and she turns herself into a mare to get away. Poseidon catches her and impregnates her and they have a horse child. The two also have a daughter named, Charybdis. She is a whirlpool that sucks all the water down in the straits of miscina between sicily and Italy.
Poseidon and Medusa have a child who is a flying horse, named Pegasus. Perseus capitates Medusa and the horse pops out of the stump of her head, as well as a man with a golden sword named Chrysaor.
Poseidon and Gaia have a child named Antaeus the Giant, and who will be defeated in a wrestling match with Hercules.
Poseidon also have a cyclops son named, Polyphemus, who is the famous one from the Odyssey.
Athena was Zeus’ daughter. Zeus eats the mother while she is still pregnant and so Athena doesn’t really have a mother. There is a competition for who will get a city named after them. Poseidon makes a “horse-spring,” whatever that is, and Athena makes an olive tree. Of course Athena wins bc olive trees are very helpful and this becomes Athens. Poseidon gets mad a sends a flood to Athens.
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