Sea deities

2019

they would be invaluable allies for Zeus in the struggle against the Titans. Since they were sent down to Tartaros afterwards to act as guards to the defeated Titans, they make no further appearance in myth, at least as a group. One of the brothers, BRIAREOS (the Mighty One, also called Ombriareos), has independent stories nonetheless which are set during the period of Olympian rule. He is marked out from his brothers even in the Theogony, for it is stated there that Poseidon made him his son-in-law at some point after the fall of the Titans by offering him his daughter Kymopoleia (Wavewalker, otherwise unknown) as a wife. 14 The Iliad reports that he was once summoned to Olympos by Thetis to save Zeus from a threatened revolt by Hera, Poseidon and Athena 15 (see p. 82); since Thetis was a seanymph, this would suggest that he lived in the sea, as might also be inferred from his relationship with Poseidon in the Theogony. Homer also remarks that he was called Briareos by the gods but was known to mortals as Aigaion. 16 In the Titanomachy, an early epic now lost, Aigaion was apparently described as a son of Gaia and Pontos (Sea) who lived in the sea and fought as an ally of the Titans. 17 If this Aigaion can be identified with Briareos, as seems likely, this account of him clearly differed in crucial respects from that in the Theogony. A Corinthian tradition suggested that Briareos had acted as arbitrator when Helios and Poseidon had competed for possession of the land in early times (see p. 103). 18 He was honoured in cult on Euboea under two different names, as Briareos at Karystos and as Aigaion at Chalkis. 19 All in all, he is a most intriguing figure, and one would like to know more of him than can be gathered from these surviving scraps.

electra, 2018

electra, 2018

Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology 23 (2019) 790–795.

This paper examines the evidence for the obscure Attic goddess Δάειρα / Δαῖρα who received cult in some Attic demes in an Eleusinian context. It is argued that this deity originally had nothing to do with Persephone, Demeter, Aphrodite, Hecate, or Harmonia with whom she is identified in some sources; instead, due prominence is given to the earliest mythographical sources according to which Daeira was an Oceanid (Pherecydes fr. 45 Fowler; Paus. 1.38.7) and a “watery substance”, ἡ ὑγρὰ οὐσία (Aelius Dionysius δ 1 Erbse = BNJ² 368 F 1). Based on these testimonia, the name Δάειρα / Δαῖρα is etymologized as “the Lady of the Waters”: *δά ϝειρα ‘having δα-’ from PIE *deh₂- ‘water’ (Iranian *dānu- ‘river’), fully parallel to the name of Poseidon (*potei̯ dās ‘the Lord of the Waters’ > Ποτ(ε)ιδᾶς).

HISTÓRIA: Questões & Debates., 2021

The cult of Poseidon Helikonios is associated with his primeval aspect of a powerful god of earthquakes and waters. His most antique cult in this capacity, dating from the Mycenaean times, originated from Helike of Achaea on the southwest shore of the Gulf of Corinth, the place known to Homer as the centre of this worship. The sanctuary of Poseidon Helikonios located in Helike, was the holiest sanctuary to all Ionians and even contained the ancient ancestral altars of the Ionic race. When the Ionians were expelled from Helike by the Achaeans at the end of the Mycenaean times, they settled in Asia Minor and carried with them the cult of Helikonios. In the paper, the spread of this particular cult to the coast of Asia Minor and from there to the Black Sea region is discussed based on literary, archaeological and numismatic evidence available in the places where the cult held a prominent position.

Because of the missing thunderbolt or trident, scholars have long debated whether the famous early classical bronze statue of a nude male god from Cape Artemision in the Athens National Museum represents Zeus or Poseidon. Arguments have been advanced for either divinity largely on the basis of iconographical comparisons with other figures of both gods in various ancient artistic media. A new look at the pose of the figure, the back-drawn right arm, and especially the position of the hand and fingers from the point of view of a spear-thrower can perhaps throw new light on this contentious old problem. Classical archaeologists and art historians, who generally have no experience in throwing spears, have not considered the problem from such a practical point of view. As both an archaeologist and avid spear-thrower myself, I offer some useful insights into this problem and discuss how this famous bronze statue from Cape Artemision more likely once held a trident than a thunderbolt and therefore is to be identified as Poseidon rather than a Zeus.

Medea', AJP, 1993

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission.