Poseidon was known in Ancient Greece as the powerful god of the seas and rivers. He was born in the region of Crete, the son of Kronos (the god of time) and Reia (goddess known as the mother of the gods), and like all his brothers except Zeus, was swallowed and regurgitated by his father.

Represented as a physically strong man with a long beard and a trident or dolphin in one hand, in Ancient Rome, Poseidon was known as Neptune and also the god of tsunamis. He formed with Zeus and Hades, the triad that ruled the universe.

Meet Poseidon, the emotional god of ancient Greece.

The myth of Poseidon

Poseidon disputed with Athena, the goddess of wisdom, who would be the representative deity of the city that is now known as Athens. Athena won by a single vote, the election made for such a decision, having been chosen by the women, while Poseidon was voted for by the men.

With a more aggressive temperament, Poseidon would have been dissatisfied and furious with the result and attacked the city with waves caused by his trident.

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In order to appease the god of the seas, the women of Athens accepted three punishments: they lost the right to vote, their children would only bear their father's name, and they would not be called Athenians.

Poseidon supported the Greeks against the Trojans in the Trojan War, for both he and Apollo helped the Trojan king build the wall around the city, under the promise of a reward that was not realized. Then Poseidon sent a sea monster that sacked the city.

Normally, Poseidon used water and earthquakes to exercise his revenge, which could be the target of his attention for many years, as happened to Odysseus, who wounded the calf of one of the Cyclops, Poseidon's sons. However, he also manifested help, as he did then with the Greeks in the mentioned war.

Poseidon fell in love with Amphitrite, daughter of Nereus and Doris, but she refused him, so he forced her to marry him. Amphitrite, however, hid in the depths of the ocean, so that only her mother knew where she was.

As time went by, Amphitrite changed her mind and returned to Poseidon, whom she married, became the queen of the oceans, and had three children, two women and one man, known as Triton, god of the oceanic abysses, with a calmer temperament than his father.

Faithfulness was not exactly a virtue of Poseidon, who had many extramarital relationships, one of which was with Gorgon the Medusa, who ended up giving birth to Pegasus, the winged horse.

Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, was also one of Poseidon's passions, and he pursued her a lot. She, to avoid him, changed herself into a mare, and he, into a stallion. From this relationship Arion was born.

Worshipping the god Poseidon

Poseidon was celebrated with the Mystic Games, athletic, musical and poetry competitions held every two years in Greece.

The Ethiopians, under the rule of the Greek empire at the time, also venerated him.

Poseidon was offered sacrifices with horses that were drowned by sailors of the seas, in exchange for good winds and safe travels, but being unpredictable, of variable mood and vain, he caused winds and earthquakes according to his will.

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The Poseidon archetype

When we deal with the archetypes that the gods represent, we consider that they represent a basic structure in which man is inserted, the family, the community, religion, values, appearance, and the way he uses his intelligence, among other aspects.

God of the seas, of earthquakes and tsunamis, Poseidon had an unstable and vengeful temperament. He represents the unconscious, broad, mysterious, and unpredictable. He is the archetype of emotions, which lie deep and hidden and emerge, albeit irrationally and instinctively.

It also represents the archetype of revenge and persecution, as Poseidon pursued Odysseus for ten years.

Poseidon was a deeply caring, loyal and protective father. Anyone who harmed any of his children would feel the results of his fury. He was capable of being sensitive and understanding. This sensitivity explains why he is an archetype associated with the souls of composers, therapists and poets.

The trident, as a symbol of Poseidon, represents sexuality, male fertility, the triple phallus, because at the same time he was able to relate to the beloved woman, he also related to others, including his own mother, characterized by women of any age: the young, the mature, and the old.

Having many wives and many children brings the archetype of virility (also represented by horses) and power.

Poseidon is a god focused on marriage, since this gives him power and dominion over his domestic kingdom, a patriarchal representation.

Poseidon's power outside the home was quite controversial, as he not infrequently lost his territories, since he lacked the strategy and good use of intelligence to keep them under his sway.

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It was an emotional personality, in which everything is felt and experienced in an intense way, sometimes uncontrolled and exaggerated, generating an irrational result. So, when Poseidon loved, he did it with depth, with intensity. A representation about bringing out the most hidden and deepest feelings, a fact also observed in the connection with the myth of the Minotaur.

Poseidon and the Minotaur

After taking over the island of Crete, Minos began fighting his brothers to stay in power and asked Poseidon to send him a white bull to show that he, as a god, approved of his reign. As an agreement, Minos then had to sacrifice the bull in honor of the god. However, due to the great beauty of the animal, Minos decided to spare it, breaking the agreement and provoking the wrath ofPoseidon.

Poseidon's revenge was to ask Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, to make Pasiphae, wife of Minos, fall in love with the bull from the sea, also known as the Cretan Bull.

Pasiphae, in love with the bull, asked the craftsman Daedalus to build a wooden cow, which she could enter and later copulate with the Cretan Bull, the one that Minos had spared. So the Minotaur was born.

The Minotaur grew up cared for by Pasiphae and became savage because he was the fruit of a union between a human and an animal, and not having a diet that suited him, in order to survive, he devoured humans.

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Poseidon Symbols

Trident: carries the forces of the human mind: id (unconscious), ego (pre-conscious) and superego (conscious), and the three human impulses: sexuality, spirituality and survival. For Poseidon, it was a weapon of war, with which he transformed calm seas into rough seas or opened cracks in rocks to make water spring up, representing the inconstancy of mood.

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Dolphin: represents a sacred guide that the Cretans used in funeral rituals as an image, and sailors and fishermen believe it was a guide and protector of sea voyages, as it was linked to the god of the seas.

Horse: in the myth of Poseidon, it represents the instinctive aspect of the human being, linked to desires.

Taurus: symbol of virility, it is at the same time the overcoming of sexual impulse, discipline, and self-control.

Poseidon is the most emotional god in Greek mythology, whose myth has been used a lot in movies, representing the duality between reason and emotion, and bringing to the public a reflection about how the emotional balance is fundamental in people's lives for coexistence, predictable or serene results.self-knowledge.