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Poseidon was the son of Cronus and Rhea and the gigantic god of
the sea. He dashed over the sea in his dolphin drawn chariot, dressed in
a green robe and a crown of pearl, shaking storms from his beard and raiding
the shoreline with his legions of white combers. He was the most fearsome
of the Olympians and the most changeable, hot-tempered and loving, cruel
and kind. He was very generous for his underwater domain held riches beyond calculation
and his bounty supported generation of sailors and fishermen;
the his mood would change and a great storm would rise out of the sea and wreck fleets and drowned all those who dare venture out onto the sea. He
loved creating new and interesting creatures; monsters to surprise the nymphs
and blowfish, sea polyps, and octopi to amuse them, the dolphin as a gift
to appease his wife's, Amphitrite's, jealous wrath, and the most beautiful
creature ever seen on earth, the horse, as a love token to Demeter, who
had repulsed his rude wooing until he presented her with this creature,
which made her change her views of him. In the process of making the horse
he did make many mistakes which resulted in the camel, zebra, donkey, hippopotamus,
and the giraffe. The horse along with the pine tree, for he was the father
of ships, were sacred to him. Poseidon was revered by people by the sea
and feared by inlanders, for his floods reached far; he was sacrificed
to and petitioned by travelers and called the "Granter of Safe Passage."
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