> I think Poseidon - like almost all great Greek deities
> - is composite, a mix of diffenrent influences. For
> example, in his horse-aspect he resembles another IE
> gods with equine traits: Boreas, Vivasvat-Surya, Zeus
> as father of Dioscuroi, etc.
> The trinity Zeus-Poseidon-Hades seem to me an
> influence of Ugaritic/Phenician three gods
> Bel-Yam-Mot.
For my money the Hades-Zeus-Poseidon trinity represents a version of
the old PIE male divine trinity. Compare the following:
[Group] -- Magic/Death God -- Storm/War God -- Fertility/People's God
Greek -- Hades -- Zeus -- Poseidon
Roman -- Jupiter -- Mars -- Quirinus
Gaulish -- Aesus -- Taranis -- Teutates
Prussian -- Patollo -- Perkuno -- Potrimpo
Norse -- Odinn -- Thorr -- Freyr
Vedic -- Varuna/Mitra -- Indra/Vayu -- Asvins
The first function gods tend to be connected with magic, law and
death and can either be associated with a celestial heaven (including
daylight or nighttime skies, the sun & moon) or an underground land
of the dead. The second function gods are associated with warfare and
storms/winds as well as the thunderbolt. The third function gods are
associated with fertility/sexuality, wealth, popular assemblies,
waters, the earth, horses and - at least in the case of Potrimpo -
snakes.
Now, this is just some speculation on my part, but it seems to me
that in Greece there has been a slight re-arrangement of the old PIE
divine functions - Zeus is obviously the chief god and should be
seens as a direct descendant of PIE *Dyeus, a patently first-function
divinity, but he seems to have assimilated certain aspects of the
second function war god, including the possession of the thunderbolt.
It may be that originally the Greeks had a system like the Indians
where there was a dual aspect to each function - so *Zeus-Hades would
have occupied the first function (being the rough equivalent of Vedic
Mitra-Varuna), but split off from one another once the second
function war/storm god was merged with Zeus (Ares may be nothing more
than a minor satellite of the old Greek war god, explaning his lower
status). This splitting off may also have caused Hades (since he was
identified with an underworld land of the dead) to become associated
more with third function traits like wealth, encroaching on some of
Poseidon's traditional territory.
- Chris Gwinn