If this seems strange to you it didn’t to the Athenians. He was a legendary king whose autochthony was so strong that he was half snake and half man. This meant that someone had natural rights to a certain land, and, as such, many Greek city-states boasted that their ancestors were autochthones. they had been born directly out of the earth. Its first king was Cecrops, a man of tremendous interest and importance for the ancient Athenians.Ī common belief amongst the Greeks was that certain people were autochthones, i.e. The story begins in a mythical time back when the city had just been founded.
The story of Athena and Poseidon’s contest is one of the founding myths of ancient Athens. His cult seems to have been in place since the late Bronze Age and the Myceneans. His main symbols were the trident, the horse, the dolphin, and the bull.Īthena v Poseidon: The Contest for Ancient Athens The Reign of Cecrops The birth of Erechtheus, Cecrops on the far-left, Codrus Painter, 440-430 BCE, Antikensammlung Poseidon also appears to have predated the other Greek gods. Just like Zeus was seen as the source of thunders, Poseidon was seen as the source of earthquakes, an extremely common and catastrophic phenomenon in the eastern Mediterranean. Another essential aspect of Poseidon was his earth-shaking powers. Poseidon was one of the most revered Greek gods which makes sense for a people relying on the sea to travel and trade as much as the Greeks. The god ruled over his realm alongside his wife Amphitrite and with the company of the sea-nymphs, the Nereids and the Tritons, who were half man-half fish creatures. As such Poseidon was seen as an equal of Zeus, with a kingdom of his own, though one of lesser importance.
Zeus got the best of the three, the sky, Poseidon got the ocean and Hades got the worst deal, the Underworld.
Upon defeating Cronus and the Titans, Zeus divided the three kingdoms of the sky, the sea, and the underworld between himself and his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades. When Cronus ate his children, Poseidon was freed by his brother Zeus. Unlike Athena, Poseidon (or Neptune for the Romans) was a brother of Zeus, descending from Cronus and Rhea who were the King and Queen of the gods before the coming of the 12 Olympians. The Return of Neptune, John Singleton Copley, 1754, Met Museum, New York
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