Whether Poseidon and Zeus were once aspects of the same divine power or whether Zeus simply supplanted a local deity, the reaction in mythology would be to continue their connection. In some cases, such as the story of Europa’s abduction to Crete, the original god was recast as Zeus, but in others Poseidon retained an outsized importance. These examples show that, before the introduction of Zeus, the god who would become known as Poseidon was the chief deity of the region. The story is believed to have been passed down through oral tradition for generations before Homer’s time and features Poseidon, rather than Zeus, as its primary god. As brothers, Zeus and Poseidon could be expected to be relatively similar.Īn additional piece of evidence is Homer’s Odyssey. The similarities between the gods were often explained by their shared ancestry. Both took many mistresses, and in different traditions there was often confusion over which of the brother fathered certain figures. They were depicted in virtually identical ways, were said to have similar personalities and temperaments, and their powers sometimes overlapped.īoth Poseidon and Zeus, for example, were notorious for being quick to anger and violent in their wrath. Poseidon and Zeus, and to a lesser extent Hades as well, were very similar gods. The three lords of the gods shared not only a family of origin, but also a level of authority. Zeus had been named the king of all the gods, but in most instances, Poseidon was his near-equal. This gave them authority not only over mankind, but also over the other deities that operated within their sphere of power. Rather than having domain over a specific aspect of life, each of the sons of Cronus ruled over an entire realm. While each god and goddess of Olympus was powerful in their own right, Zeus and his brothers were recognized as rulers over all of the others. Poseidon’s position in the Greek pantheon was strengthened by the fact that he was the brother of Zeus. Poseidon became the god of the sea, second only to his younger brother in overall power and authority. Zeus took the sky for his realm, while Hades took the Underworld. They also shared power on Earth, as no single god could claim power over Gaia. While Zeus was the king of the gods, each of the brothers took a realm for themselves. Instead of claiming kingship solely for himself, he shared power with the brothers who had helped him win the war. Eventually they, like the Titans before them, defeated the older generation of gods and took power for themselves.Īfter the Titan War had ended, Zeus did something different than his father. The three brothers led a coalition of younger gods and allies in the Titanomachy, the war against the Titans. Poseidon and Hades joined their brother in his rebellion. The potion induced vomited, causing Cronus to expel his children from his stomach. With the help of a Titaness, Metis, Zeus gave his father a powerful purgative. His first act was to disguise himself as a cupbearer to free his siblings. When Zeus was grown, he returned to challenge his father. Cronus was tricked into swallowing a stone instead, and his youngest son grew up in hiding. Only Zeus was spared, because his mother and Gaia hid his birth. His three daughters were first, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, followed by two sons, Poseidon and Hades. To prevent this, Cronus swallowed each of his children as soon as they were born. Gaia, the Mother Earth, had warned her son that one of his children would someday defeat him just as he had his own father. Although they had many children, Cronus endeavored to make sure none would grow into adulthood. Despite this, Cronus became the king of the gods because he was the one to overthrow his father, Uranus.Ĭronus married his sister, Rhea. His father was the youngest of the Titans. Poseidon was, like Zeus, a son of Cronus and Rhea. Rather than being just because they shared parents, this was also because of the ways in which the characters developed when Greek religion was in its infancy. Poseidon and his brothers were very similar in both their personalities and the ways in which they were depicted. Zeus’s first action when he was grown was to free his brothers so they could fight by his side. He failed in this, however, because Rhea and Gaia hid the infant Zeus from him. Hoping to ensure that he would never lose power to one of his children, the king of the Titans tried to ensure that they would never grow to challenge him. Like his other siblings, aside from Zeus, Poseidon was swallowed at birth by his father. This made him the brother of Zeus, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. Poseidon was one of the three sons of the Titan Cronus and his sister, Rhea.
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