![]() ![]() Athena, on the other hand, offered them an olive tree. Unfortunately, the water was salty (perhaps due to his oceanic provenance) and was not terribly potable. Poseidon offered the first gift-striking the ground with his trident and producing a spring. The terms of their contest were simple: whoever could provide the citizens of Athens with a more valuable gift would become their official patron. In another tale, Athena and Poseidon compete for the favor of the Athenian people, with each god promising total sovereignty to the victor. The hymn to Poseidon included among the Homeric Hymns is a brief invocation, a seven-line introduction that addresses the god as both "mover of the earth and barren sea, god of the deep who is also lord of Helicon and wide Aegae, and identifies his twofold nature as an Olympian: "a tamer of horses and a saviour of ships." Other Accounts When the world was divided in three, Zeus received the sky, Hades the underworld and Poseidon the sea. According to other variants, Poseidon was raised by the Telchines on Rhodes, just as Zeus was raised by the Korybantes on Crete. Zeus and his brothers and sisters, along with the Hecatonchires, Gigantes and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. He was saved by his mother Rhea who tricked Cronus into eating a foal instead, saying that she had given birth to a horse. ![]() ![]() However in some versions of the story, he, like his brother Zeus, did not share the fate of his other brother and sisters who were eaten by Cronos. In most accounts, he is swallowed by Cronus at birth. Also, animal offerings to Poseidon were a common feature at the feast days of other gods, including the "festival at the temple of Hera on the 27th of Gamelion," which honored the goddess "together with Zeus the Accomplisher, Kourotrophos and Poseidon." Mythology Birth and triumph over Cronus On a larger scale, "there was a festival once every fifth year at Sunium in honor of Poseidon - evidently, then, a major event. In ancient Greece, the feast day in his honor was widely celebrated at the beginning of the winter. In other words, the god preceded his realm. In the heavily sea-dependent Mycenean culture, no connection between Poseidon and the sea has yet surfaced among the Olympians, it was determined by lot that he should rule over the sea. Poseidon is already identified as "Earth-Shaker" in Mycenaean Knossos, a powerful attribution in a society where earthquakes were credited with the collapse of the Minoan palace-culture. Further, Xenophon's Anabasis describes a group of Spartan soldiers singing to a paean to Poseidon-a type of hymn normally reserved for Apollo. ![]() Indeed, Apollo and Poseidon worked closely in many realms: in colonization, for example, Apollo provided the authorization to go out and settle from Delphi, while Poseidon watched over the colonists on their way, and provided the lustral water for the foundation-sacrifice. It is also said that Poseidon was one of the caretakers of the Oracle at Delphi before the Olympian Apollo became its patron. Poseidon was a major civic god of several Greek cities: in Athens, he was second only to Athena in importance while in Corinth and many cities of Magna Graecia, he was the chief god of the polis. ![]()
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