Poside Family Tree

POSEIDON is the son of KRONOS (Cronos) and RHEIA, brother of ZEUS, HADES, HESTIA, DEMETER and HERA. He is one of the six original Olympians. His mission is to give voice to the earth. Poseidon was commonly called the Earth-Shaker and the Earth-Encircler in the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer. He pounds and shakes the earth and sea with his wrath and pleasure and answers to no one, except Zeus.

His kingdom is the vast sea which he has populated with creatures of his own design. He rides the waves in a chariot drawn by dolphins but, curiously enough, his most honored creation is the horse.

His wife was Amphitrite, a nymph and ancient sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus and Doris.

Poseidon was the father of many heroes. He is thought to have raped Aethra thus fathering the famed Theseus. A mortal woman named Tyro was married to Cretheus (with whom she had one son, Aeson) but loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus and from their union were born the heroes Pelias and Neleus, twin boys. Poseidon had an affair with Alope, his granddaughter through Cercyon, begetting the Attic hero Hippothoon. Cercyon had his daughter buried alive but Poseidon turned her into the spring, Alope, near Eleusis.

Poseidon rescued Amymone from a lecherous satyr and then fathered a child, Nauplius, by her.

After having sex with Caeneus, Poseidon fulfilled her request and changed her into a man.

Not all of Poseidon's children were human. In an archaic myth, Poseidon once pursued Demeter. She spurned his advances, turning herself into a mare so that she could hide in a herd of horses; he saw through the deception and became a stallion and captured her. Their child was a horse, Arion, which was capable of human speech. With Medusa, Poseidon had sexual intercourse on the floor of a temple to Athena. Medusa was changed into a monster. When she was later beheaded by the hero Perseus, Chrysaor and Pegasus emerged from her neck. There is also Triton, the merman; Polyphemus, the cyclops; and Oto and Ephialtae, the giants.