NEP'TUNE (Lat. Neptunus; connected with Ay. noptu, moist ), or POSEIDON (Gk. ilOaetatZv, POSCidthi. Do•ie HoreadFwv, Poteidavon, HoreoViv, Poteidan: of uncertain etymology). In classical mythology, a brother of Zeus and lord of the sea. In legend he is the son of Cronus and Rhea. Ilis home is a splendid palace in the depths of the sea near .F.gte, though which town of this name was meant caused much dispute. His wife in Hesiod is Amphitrite, and she shared his cult on the Isthmus. As a lover he rivals his brother Zeus, and many legends traced loeal heroes to Poseidon and some nymph or daughter of an early king. So Neleus and l'elias were sons of Poseidon and Tyro. In his nature Poseidon is always wild and implacable, never becoming a guardian of higher virtues. He is the 'shaker of the earth•' a natural conclusion from the fre quency with which disturbances of the sea ac company the shocks on land, but he is, above all, the master of the sea, who sends the dreaded storms. and at his will controls the waves. which are (-ailed his swift horses. His attribute is the trident. Or three-pronged harpoon of the ..Egean fisherman. with which he controls the waves, or brings springs from rocks. Closely associated with him is the horse. lie was the horse-tamer, was honored with horse-races at many points. horses were frequently sacrified to him, and there are traces of a belief that he was in the form of a horse. His worship was chiefly confined to the coast, though he had temples even in the inland country of Arcadia. and it is not at
all improbable that he was originally a god of water and moisture in general. There is some evidence for a decline in Poseidon worship, which seems reflected in the legends of his contest with Athena for Attica and with Hera for Argos. At Athens be was worshiped in the Erechtheum. and it seems clear that both ErechtlMus and are in essence the same deity. From him was also named the Attic month Poseideon (about De cember). He was a great Ionian divinity, and the Panionia were celebrated by the twelve Ionic cities at his sanctuary at Myeale. His temple on the island of Calauria. where Demosthenes died, was in very early times the centre of an amphietynny or league of maritime States. His most famous cult, however, was on the Isthmus of Corinth. where the Isthmian Tamers were cele brated in his honor. In art Poseidon has much the same type as Zeus, hut without the dignity and benignity of the latter. Statues of him are by no means common. Two of the best are the Poseidon of \lelos, now in Athens. and the fine statue in the Lateran, which many regard as de rived from the famous bronze by Lysippus on the Isthmus.
At Rome the old Italian or Roman water-god. who appears dimly in religious tradition.serms to have been earl• identified with Poseidon, and during the historical period Neptune is scarcely distinguishable from the Greek god of the sea.