Tag Archives: #poseidonweek

#PoseidonWeek: Poseidon through the ages

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Updated September 1st 9:00 PM: The #PoseidonWeek contest is closed, and the two winners, both from my Facebook page, selected by random.org are: Yendur Benny and Jutta Ervell! Thanks to everyone for stopping by. It was fun. 🙂

 

As my final post for #PoseidonWeek, I thought I’d share some perspectives on Poseidon in popular culture. Poseidon is most definitely one of the most enduring characters from classical mythology, and when you think about it, the fact that he’s been an archetype for over two millennia is pretty amazing.

Probably his popularity has to do with our fascination with the sea, which up until fairly recent times was easily imagined as an inscrutable force of nature: beautiful, seemingly infinite, and capable of menace and destruction, particularly for those who sought to use it for travel.

Corinthian plaque of Poseidon

A Corinthian plaque of Poseidon, circa 550-525 BCE

Greek sailors believed that the sea was warded by the god, and they made sacrifices of horses and bulls before their voyages in order to beseech Poseidon for safe passage. As one of the twelve principal gods of the classical Greek pantheon, Poseidon played a big role in religion and daily life. He appears in Homer’s Illiad in which he provides some aid to the Achaeans (Greeks) in their siege of Troy. In Homer’s Odyssey, Poseidon is more of a villainous force, keeping the war hero Odysseus lost at sea when he seeks to return home from battle.

Here is one of Hesiod’s “Homeric Hymns” dedicated to Poseidon from a 1922 translation:

I begin to sing about Poseidon, the great god, mover of the earth and fruitless sea, god of the deep who is also lord of Helicon and wide Aegae. A twofold office the gods allotted you, O Shaker of the Earth, to be a tamer of horses and a saviour of ships!

Hail, Poseidon, Holder of the Earth, dark-haired lord! O blessed one, be kindly in heart and help those who voyage in ships!

Citation: Evelyn-White, Hugh G., trans. Hesiod, Homeric Hymns, Epic Cycle, Homerica. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1922; Bartleby.com, 2010.

Of course, Poseidon lived on in the imagination of the Romans, though they changed his name to Neptune. The Romans didn’t take as reverential of a view of their gods, but they enjoyed their myths and legends as well as artwork inspired by myth. Many depictions of the god, who was associated both with the sea and with horses, survived the era in statuary and friezes. Like their Saturnalia and Bacchanalia traditions, the Romans held a yearly Neptunalia at midsummer, that perhaps was geared to ushering in rain to quench the dry Mediterranean season.

Sousse_neptune

I found this beautiful 3rd century AD mosaic on Wikipedia Commons: Poseidon in a sea-horse drawn chariot. From the Sousse Archeological Museum in Tunisia.

Union of Earth and Water

Peter Paul Rubens’ “Union of Earth and Water” c. 1618

Moving ahead a century and change (sorry Middle Ages, once again you get short shrift), the Renaissance period in Europe saw a renewed interest in classical mythology, including the god of sea and storm, most often referenced as Neptune due to the dominating influence of Italian Roman sensibility. He was a frequent subject of decorative fountains, Bartolomeo Ammannati’s famous 16th century Fountain of Neptune in Florence, for example, as well as oil paintings. He was portrayed by Rubens, Bordone, Bronzini, Poussin, and many other artists. Neptune (or Poseidon) has been a steady motif in statues and fountains through modern times, and representations can be found in the gardens of Chateau Versaille, the Court of Neptune in Washington, DC, bronze sculpture at New York City’s Grand Army Plaza, and probably many hundreds of public parks and gardens around the world.

Neptune is one of the subjects of early twentieth century British composer Gustav Holst’s orchestral suite “The Planets.”

In American films, Poseidon has been portrayed by actors Kevin McKidd (Percy Jackson and the Olympians), Danny Huston (Clash of the Titans), and Kellan Lutz (Immortals).

Here’s a bit of a silly, instructional trailer with my favorite Kevin McKidd.

Meet Poseidon – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Kevin McKidd plays the Earthshaker and Lord of the Sea, Poseidon in the 2010 action movie Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Also starring Logan Lerman, Brandon Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Jake Abel, Pierce Brosnan and Uma Thurman

That’s a whirlwind tour, but I’m afraid it’s all I have time for today! Don’t forget: it’s the last day to enter the #PoseidonWeek contest. Interact with my site or my Facebook page and you could win Poseidon swag provided by Zazzle. Contest ends 9:00 PM EST Thursday, September 1st.

Visual inspiration for Poseidon & Cleito

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I started keeping inspiration boards for my writing the old fashioned way: cutting out pictures from magazines and gluing them to a sheet of oak tag. That old fashioned method had some advantages. It was nice having something to put up in my office where I write, and it was fun taking the time to snip out images that I liked and to place them on the board. But the variety of pictures was limited, especially since my writing takes inspiration from ancient settings. It also could be time consuming, and I knew at some point I would run out of wall space.

So, about six months ago, I converted to Pinterest for my boards. It actually could be just as time consuming. There’s almost an infinite number and variety of images to search through, not that narrowing down that search isn’t easy, but once you get started, it can be hard to stop. Still, overall, it’s much more efficient for me and gives me tons of ancient world and fantasy material to choose from.

For my Poseidon and Cleito board, I was interested in having some images that were evocative of the characters as well as some that reflected costume, setting and mythology. I shared on my board that Maria Sharapova was a modern day inspiration for Cleito, both physically and in terms of her relentless, impassive persona. That may not be fair to Maria. She’s probably a sweetheart off of the tennis court and would never consider murdering her family for wealth and power. 🙂

I think I found the perfect model for the character of Bromios, modeled on the god Dionysius. The one character-model that was evasive in my research was Poseidon himself. I think my publisher did a great job with the cover artwork in depicting him. My challenge was settling on an image of a guy who was hardy, noble, and not conventionally attractive. Male models abound on Pinterest, but they’re too pretty.

People ask me: who would play Poseidon if your book was turned into a movie, and I haven’t come up with any dream choices. There are a lot of excellent, rugged-looking actors (Tom Hardy, Viggo Mortensen), but Poseidon is nineteen, maybe twenty years old in the story, so it would have to be a younger actor, maybe a less-known European with a tall and thin but powerful build. The kind of guy who looks like he has to chase down his dinner in the woods every night.

In addition to prehistoric and ancient Greek imagery, I looked for seascapes, and costumes for the well-clad Adoratrice Cleito, and flora and architecture that would be evocative of the island that would become Atlantis. You can check out the board through the widget below and tell me what you think.

Remember: it’s #PoseidonWeek! On Thursday, September 1st, 9:00PM, I’ll announce winners of Poseidon swag provided by Zazzle. You can enter by commenting or sharing a post or interacting with my Facebook page. 

It’s #PoseidonWeek at andrewjpeterswrites.com!

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Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune by Angelo Bronzino. Retrieved from Wikipedia Commons.

Portrait of Andrea Doria as Neptune by Angelo Bronzino. Retrieved from Wikipedia Commons.

It’s Poseidon Week here at andrewjpeterswrites.com! From Monday, August 29th to Thursday, September 1st, I’ll be posting stories, images, and interesting facts about the famous trident-wielder to celebrate the August 29th release of Poseidon and Cleito exclusively on Amazon. You’ll also find excerpts and some extras from the book. And I’m running a contest. Drop a comment, like, or share any post on my website, or my Facebook page, and you’ll be entered into a raffle for Poseidon swag provided by Zazzle. Winners will be chosen Thursday, September 1st 9:00PM EST.

So what is it you could win? Your very own Poseidon t-shirt, Poseidon mug, or Poseidon notebook. Winners will need to provide their e-mail address and mailing address for shipping.

For today’s post, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts about Poseidon and some lesser known stories about him. Poseidon was never my very favorite personage from Greek mythology. Growing up, I was more drawn to the heroic tales of Jason, Perseus, and Theseus. When I came out as gay, I found new favorites in the stories of Zeus and Ganymede, and Apollo and Hyacinth. But there was always something sympathetic for me about gloomy, aloof Poseidon.

He strikes me as a lonely guy, perhaps misunderstood, lashing out at mortals from some inner torment, whether borne from being overshadowed by his older brother Zeus or something else that was never elaborated on. Most of the Greek gods could be said to be moody and capricious in their sorting out of mortal matters, but it seemed particularly tough to get on

Poseidon’s good side. Being a natural skeptic, I’ve wondered if that was a fair portrayal.

Artemision Poseidon

“Artemision Zeus or Poseidon,” a famous 5th century BCE bronze statue at the Athens Museum of Archeology

An interesting thing about Greek mythology is that it changed throughout the eras, and most of what endured, what we recognize today, is from the classical era when Zeus and Athena were prominent and beloved. Some scholars believe that the worship of Poseidon was more widespread in earlier time periods and that his significance extended beyond an association with sea and storm. To people of an earlier age, he was probably a beneficent god of an earthly realm, worshiped for fertility and good harvests. Another matter is that the similarity in Poseidon and Zeus iconography makes it hard to determine which god was most popular among the Greeks, or whether they were both offshoots of a father god archetype.

Poseidon remained an important figure in religious practice and folklore throughout and beyond the classical period (and of course, many centuries forward via the Romans co-opting him as Neptune). But for the most part, he was portrayed as fearsome and villainous in the stories from the classical era. In Homer’s Odyssey, for example, Poseidon is an antagonist to the hero Odysseus, preventing the Trojan war hero from returning home to Ithaca in retribution for blinding his son Cyclops. Plato’s story about Poseidon’s kingdom Atlantis in his Critias and Timaeus dialogues has the patron god’s country destroyed by a morally and–one would have to argue–supernaturally superior Zeus.

The Marriage of Poseidon and Cleito

“The Marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite” by Italian painter Felice Giani (image retrieved from Wikipedia Commons)

Poseidon and Cleito is a retelling of that legend, including the perspective of the woman Plato named as Poseidon’s wife. A more well-known wife of Poseidon’s from folkore is Amphitrite, who was a Nereid (a daughter of the archaic sea god Nereus), and a sea-goddess herself. Of more notoriety, Poseidon was said to have seduced or even raped the beautiful maiden Medusa in his sister Athena’s temple, which angered Athena so much, she transformed Medusa’s hair to serpents. The Greeks had little charity for women in their myths.

A point of contrast with Zeus: while his older brother was the father of some of the most popular heroes from Greek mythology (Perseus, Heracles), Poseidon was the father of some of the most well-known monsters, such as Polyphemos, also known as the Cyclops, and Charybdis, the female whirlpool monster, of the famous Scylla and Charybdis, aka “the rock and a hard place.”

One last bit of trivia, Poseidon had male lovers too. One particularly interesting story is that of Nerites, who was the handsome brother of the beautiful Nereids (sea nymphs). Both Aphrodite and Poseidon fell in love with Nerites, and the young man refused the love goddess and chose Poseidon, who made him his charioteer.

Let me know what you think about Poseidon by dropping a comment below, and I’ll enter you in the raffle for Poseidon swag!