It may come as a surprise to some, but the god of the sea was also the god of earthquakes and horses. The “Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology” explains that the earliest worship of the god was by invading Ionians and Minyans, who introduced fearsome chariots with them. These wheeled vehicles, pulled by thundering horses, explain much as to why Poseidon’s title was Ennosigaios, meaning “Earth-shaker.” In fact, as pointed out in “Poseidon, Walls, and Narrative Complexity in the Homeric Iliad,” Poseidon shows his greatest power not over the seas but through his ability to jolt the land and shatter mountains.

In the early worship of Poseidon, he seems to have been the chief deity until an invasion of Achaeans around 1450 BCE introduced Zeus. Poseidon was demoted to chiefly a god associated with the sea. The World History Encyclopedia explains that typical representations of Poseidon show him living in golden mansions beneath the sea with his famed white horses. Another surname of Poseidon, according to the Theoi Project, is “Hippios,” meaning “horse.”

Poseidon was a serial philanderer and spawned numerous important figures in Greek mythology. The Theoi Project dedicates a whole page to the suspected and actual children of the sea god. Some of the most notable included Theseus (pictured), the fabled slayer of the Minotaur that tormented the island of Crete, as well as Polyphemus, a cyclops who had a famous encounter with the hero Odysseus in “The Odyssey.” Others, as noted in the World History Encyclopedia, included Orion the hunter and the whirlpool-spawning monster Charybdis. The conception of Theseus is a good illustration for how these divine trysts worked. As explained by “Classical Mythology,” Aithra was the wife of King Aigeus of Athens. However, on a night that Aigeus lay with Aithra, the god also had sex with her, thus producing Theseus.

Poseidon also had same-gender interests, as shown in the case of Pelops. Pelops was the handsome son of Tantalus, and Poseidon was so taken by him that he carried him off to Olympus to be his lover. Eventually, Poseidon helped Pelops win his own wife.

One of the most well-known of the ancient Greek monsters was the Minotaur, a creature with the head of a bull and a man’s body. While Poseidon did not beget the Minotaur, his actions caused its birth. 

As explained by the World History Encyclopedia, King Minos of Crete, in order to cement his political power, sought to show that he had divine support for his rule. Therefore, he prayed to Poseidon to present him with a bull from the depths of the sea, promising that he would sacrifice it to the god. Poseidon obliged and sent a magnificent snow-white bull, called the Cretan Bull. Minos was happy since this proved that Poseidon himself supported his rule. However, the king could not bring himself to sacrifice the wonderful animal. Instead, he selected a lesser bull. Poseidon was naturally angry at the slight. 

There are several versions of what happened next. In two common versions, Poseidon either cursed the king’s wife, Pasiphae, to fall in love with the bull, or he asked Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to do it as a favor for him. This resulted in the mating of Pasiphae with the bull, and the result was the Minotaur, whom Pasiphae named Asterion, which eventually could only live on human flesh. There is some irony in this story since Theseus, the reputed son of Poseidon, ended up slaying the monster.

Poseidon didn’t just squabble. He also rebelled against Zeus, not caring to be Olympus’ second fiddle. “Poseidon, Walls, and Narrative Complexity in the Homeric Iliad” recounts how Poseidon, along with Hera and Athena, plotted to overthrow Zeus soon after the overthrow of the Titans. They enlisted the assistance of Apollo, who, as described in the “Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology,” put Zeus in chains. However, Thetis, the sea nymph and mother of Achilles, freed him with help of one of the Hundred-Handers. 

Other versions of the myth, such as that discussed in “Ancient Greece and Rome: Myths and Beliefs” suggest that Zeus merely discovered the plot. Either way, Poseidon and Apollo were punished by being sent to build the fabled walls of the city of Troy. As recounted in the Roman poet Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” both he and Apollo assumed mortal form and promised to build the walls for the king for a sum of gold. However, the king refused to pay them. As a result, Poseidon (equated with Neptune by Ovid) flooded the land and demanded that the king’s daughter be handed over to a sea monster. However, Hercules rescued her. Still, the king refused his promise, so Hercules sacked Troy.

While the Olympic Games are generally well-known as a part of ancient Greek culture, Poseidon was particularly venerated at the biannual Isthmian games. “Isthmian” refers to the Isthmus of Corinth, where they were played at Poseidon’s sanctuary. Corinth was an excellent choice for Panhellenic games since, as the book “The Smell of Sweat” reports, Corinth was on a main road leading to Athens, was central in Greece, and was easily accessible by sea. The games became a major tourist attraction and undoubtedly a huge moneymaker for Corinth.

Open to all Greeks but particularly popular with Athenians, these games, as Britannica notes, were held biannually, played in the spring of the second and fourth years of each Olympiad. Some of the games’ main features included musical competitions, athletic contests, and, naturally enough for the horse god, horse races. The University of Pennsylvania explains that the winners of the games received a monetary reward as well a crown of wild, dry celery. During Roman times, this was changed to a pine wreath since the pine was considered sacred to Poseidon. 

These games continued until the fourth century A.D. when the rise of Christianity frowned on such pagan festivals. It was at about that time, with the rise of monotheism, that the worship of Poseidon finally died, and he transformed into the caricature we know and love today.