Re: [tied] Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

----- Original Message -----
From: <MrCaws@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2001 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.


> 1: I agree, but is this necessarily just PIE? Sumerian Lord of
> Underground waters Enki is pretty old,
> 2: So a grafting on of an IE deity to a non-IE or at least different
> IE Lord of Waters perhaps?

Like all main great Greek gods, Poseidon is a very complex deity. It's hard
to distinguish IE and non-IE traits. There's a large amount of
superpositions.

> 4:Enki was sometimes depicted as a serpent, other times as a fish. He
> seemed to be at the head of the Sumerian pantheon at one point(In my
> opinion, anyway). Heads of the pantheon are often consorts of the
> goddess and often have serpent attributes.
> I am interested in the Hephaistos comparison-What traits do you see
> in common?

I think Hephaistos had a role as a sort of consort of Athena (at least in
Athens). His role of a consort of the Great Goddess, but he bother her and
she cast him below. This myth has many counterparts across Greece and
Western Asia. I think
it's the main source of legends of quarrels between a god and goddess (the
god is allways defeated) : Poseidon x Hera in Argos; Poseidon x Athena in
Athens. I'd also include some interesting couples:
Ares (father of the Kadmus serpent) and Aphrodite in Thebas.
Kekrops/Erikhthonios and Athenas in Athens (Hephaistos is considered the
father of snake-bodied Erikhthonios)
Python and Leto in Delphi and Delos.
Eden's Snake and Eva.



> 5. The consort of the goddess is often a Lord of the Wilderness
> figure such as this. I definetly think there are reasons to connect
> Poseidon to this archetype/role as well. I wonder if this reflects an
> earlier role he played in old Mediterranean/Near Eastern myth?
> 6.Hmmm. I will have to get back to you on that one too.

Yes, the Lord of Wilderness was the Goddess's consort in Old European myths.
I'd like to add to the trais of Poseidon his relation to Ugaritic Yam, the
Serpentlike God of Sea. His consort was the beautiful Athtart (I think she's
the source of Greek Amphitrite)

> Mr. Caws
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