When she was rescued by Heracles, Laomedon again welshed on his debt, so Heracles gave Hesione to Telamon. In a scene reminiscent of Andromeda being offered for sacrifice to the sea-monster Cetis, Laomedon’s daughter Hesione was chained to rocks to await her grizzly fate. But when the walls were complete, Laomedon denied striking a bargain to repay the gods for their labour, and Poseidon responded by flooding the city. Apollo and Poseidon agreed to lend a hand, to make his task more possible. Apollo had gone to Laomedon’s kingdom, where he found the king struggling to build the great walls of the first city of Troy. Poseidon came close to destroying the original Achaian city of Troy. Poseidon was so upset by his defeat that he flooded the Attic Plain to punish the Athenians. Athena offered an olive tree, which was deemed the winner, hence the city became known as Athens in her honour. Poseidon struck the earth with his trident and brought forth a spring, but it provided salt rather than fresh water. At the end of the year, Athena and Poseidon agreed to a competition in which each would give the Athenians a gift the one preferred by the citizens would determine which of the deities would form the name of the city. René-Antoine Houasse’s Dispute between Minerva and Neptune over the Naming of the City of Athens from about 1689-1706 is a powerful pictorial retelling of this legend. René-Antoine Houasse (1645–1710), Dispute between Minerva and Neptune over the Naming of the City of Athens (c 1689-1706), oil on canvas, 130 x 184 cm, Château de Versailles, Versailles, France. Poseidon was also involved in the dispute over the naming of the city of Athens. She was therefore stripped and chained to a rock on the coast, abandoned for Cetus to devour her, from where she was rescued by Perseus. The king was told by an oracle that the only way to be rid of Cetus was to sacrifice Andromeda to it. The latter decided to punish Cassiopeia for this arrogance, and sent Cetus, a sea monster, to ravage the coast of North Africa including Aethiopia. Her mother, Cassiopeia, was so proud that she boasted that Andromeda was more beautiful than even the Nereids, who often accompanied Poseidon. The best-known tells of Andromeda, the beautiful daughter of the King and Queen of the North African kingdom of Aethiopia. Poseidon is involved with several key myths. Walter Crane’s Neptune’s Horses from 1892 is one of a series of paintings which he made fusing the horses drawing Poseidon’s chariot with breaking waves, themselves popularly known in English as white horses. Walter Crane (1845–1915), Neptune’s Horses (1892), oil on canvas, 33.9 × 84.8 cm, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. When she sings to Poseidon her voice calms his raging storms and brings peace to the waters, and here is associated with the rainbow which might follow a squall. As one of the daughters of Nereus and Doris, she is a Nereid. Jacob Jordaens’ Neptune and Amphitrite in the Storm from 1644 includes Amphitrite, Poseidon’s wife and the Queen of the Seas. Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), Neptune and Amphitrite in the Storm (1644), oil on canvas, dimensions not known, Rubenshuis, Antwerp, Belgium. John Singleton Copley’s painting of The Return of Neptune (1754) was made after an original by Simon François Ravenet and Andrea Casali, and is a typical assembly of most of the god’s attributes and associations, with the exception of his partner. John Singleton Copley (1738–1815) after Simon François Ravenet (1706–1764) after Andrea Casali (1705–1784), The Return of Neptune (1754), oil on canvas, 69.9 x 113 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Pellegrino Tibaldi’s figure of Neptune (1549-51) shows Poseidon in his role in the story of Odysseus. Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596), Neptune, from the Story of Ulysses (1549-51), fresco, dimensions not known, Palazzo Poggi, Bologna, Italy. In myth, though, there are darker stories in which he is more vengeful and destructive. In paintings, Poseidon is almost invariably represented as the Old Man of the Sea: a jolly old mariner with long, flowing white hair and beard, his chariot being towed through the sea by dolphins or horses. His characteristic attribute is the trident, a three-pronged spear, and he often appears with dolphins and fish, and occasionally with composites based on horses and sea creatures. Possibly through archaic associations, he’s also the god most associated with the horse. The god of the waters – both fresh water and salt – he’s strongly associated with the sea, its storms, and earthquakes. Poseidon (Greek Ποσειδῶν), who becomes the Roman Neptune, was the son of the primordial deities Kronos and Rhea, making him a brother of Zeus and Hera, and one of the senior deities of Olympus.
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