Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/69

 THE GREEK GODS 55 71. The destructive power of the threatening rocks and whirlpools in the sea was personified in the imagi- nary sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis. The former appears as a maiden, out of whose body grow six dogs' heads, which pull the rowers out of ships ; but Charyb- dis is described by Homer in general only as a monster that three times a day sucks high water in. Both were in later times localized in the straits of Messina. 72. Of a more exalted nature than any of these beings is Poseidon (Lat. Neptunus), brother of Zeus and Hades. He is the ruler of the sea, and, at the same time, of all waters in general. As a symbol of his power, and as a weapon with which he can cleave the rocks and cut val- leys in the mountains, he carries a trident, really a sort of harpoon which was used by fishermen in spearing dolphins and tunny. He was the national god of the lonians, who lived chiefly by fishing and sailing the sea, just as his son Theseus was their national hero. Yet his worship is more ancient than that of The- seus ; for as early as the Ionian migration it reached Asia, where the Panidnia were celebrated in his honor on the promontory Mycale as a festival of the united Ionian colonies. To these corresponded in the father- land the games established by Sisyphus and Theseus on the isthmus of Corinth, which were originally as purely Ionian as the old Amphictyonia (' sacrificial league') of Poseidon at Calaunia near Troezen. Sanc- tuaries of Poseidon were situated in many places, all over the Peloponnesus and on other coasts ; but his dwelling place was said to be, with his wife Amphitrite, in a golden palace in the depths of the sea, near Aegae in Achaia.