Poseidon

Poseidon was one of the six children of Kronos and Rhea, swallowed at birth and freed during the Titanomachy. When the three brothers divided the cosmos, Poseidon received dominion over the seas. He built a magnificent palace on the ocean floor and rode the waves in a chariot drawn by hippocampi.

Poseidon was a temperamental god, easily offended and slow to forgive. He feuded with Athena over patronage of Athens, losing when she offered the olive tree while he could only produce a salt spring. He punished Odysseus with a decade of storms for blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus.

Despite his fearsome reputation, Poseidon was also credited with creating the horse and teaching mankind the art of horsemanship. Sailors and fishermen offered prayers and sacrifices to him before every voyage, and his great temple at Sounion overlooked the sea approaches to Athens.