Poseidon Essay, Research Paper

I just finished reading about the god Poseidon. I am going to tell you a little

about him. Some of the things that I am going to tell you about, are some of his

relatives, his symbol, his power, a few interesting facts, and a brief summary

of one of the many stories that he is mentioned in. First I am going to tell you

about his symbol. It is a trident. It was given to him by the Cyclopes to arm

him in the battle against the Titans. The trident is not just something that

looks like a pitchfork. It is much more powerful. It has the power to fork up

whole continents and islands. After that, this became his tool of power. He

would also throw his trident at the ground and it would create huge earthquakes.

This is how he got his nickname Earthshaker. Now I am going to tell you about

the relatives of Poseidon. His parents were Cronus and Rhea. Poseidon is the

brother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Zeus. Zeus banished him to the

underwater kingdom. Then Poseidon hurled huge waves at Zeus’ kingdom on Mount

Olympus. He was unable to reach the kingdom, so he threw the waves at the land.

This eroded it everywhere except where Mother Earth put cliffs. Now I am going

to tell you a summary of a myth about Poseidon. The name of this story is

Poseidon. "In the days of Cronus and the Titans, the sea was ruled by

Nereus." Nereus was the father of fifty sea nymphs. When Poseidon came to

take over the sea, Nereus gave him his daughter Amphitrite for his queen. Then

Nereus retired and went into an underwater grotto. Poseidon had a son with

Amphitrite. His name was Triton. He had a fishtail instead of legs. Just like

his grandfather. He rode around on the back of a sea monster. Poseidon was

barely ever at home because he was always racing the waves with his snow white

horses. Poseidon had many wives and many children but Amphitrite was not

jealous. One of the islands that Poseidon made was named Delos. It was so new

that it still floated about the ocean. The only thing that grew on this island

was a palm tree. This island had barely been discovered. This is the island on

which Apollo and Artemis would be born. This is why Apollo and Artemis will be

born on the island of Delos. Hera found out that Zeus had married Leto. She got

very mad and ordered all the lands to refuse to give her shelter. Therefore Leto

could not give birth to the babies. She then went to Delos. They could accept

her there because it was still floating and was not a land yet. But she still

could not give birth to the babies because Hera had forbid Ilithyia the goddess

of childbirth to go to her. "Without her help no child could be born."

All the goddess’ felt bad for Leto, so they bribed Hera with a necklace. It was

nine feet long and made of gold and amber. Hera gave in and let Ilithyia go to

Leto. Then Apollo and Artemis were born. "Zeus was filled with joy at the

sight of his beautiful twins. He gave them each a silver bow and quiver full of

arrows. The arrows of Artemis were soft as the moon and brought painless death,

those of Apollo were hard and piercing as the rays of the sun." Zeus

blessed the island and attached it to the bottom of the sea. Plants grew

everywhere on the island and this island became the richest Greek island of all.

"Pilgrims flocked to it and loaded it with temples and treasures to honor

Leto and her Twins." That was just some of the many interesting facts that

I found about Poseidon. Poseidon is just one of the many Greek gods. So think of

all the interesting facts about Greek mythology there are. I hope that you

enjoyed reading my report on Poseidon.