Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a safe voyage, sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice. One Hippocratic text says that he was blamed for certain types of epilepsy. Like Dionysus and the Maenads, Poseidon also caused certain forms of mental disturbance. Xenophon's Anabasis describes a groups of Spartan soldiers singing Poseidon a paean - a kind of hymn normally sung for Apollo. Apollo and Poseidon worked closely in many realms: in colonization, for example, Apollo provided the authorization to go out and settle from Delphi, while Poseidon watched over the colonists on their way, and provided the lustral water for the foundation-sacrifice. In the historical period, Poseidon was often referred to by the epithets Enosichthon, Seischthon and Ennosigaios, all meaning 'earth-shaker' and referring to his role in causing earthquakes.Poseidon was a major civic god of several cities: in Athens, he was second only to Athena in importance while in Corinth and many cities of Magna Graecia he was the chief god of the polis.Īccording to Pausanias, Poseidon was one of the caretakers of the Oracle at Delphi before Olympian Apollo took it over. The type of the offering implies a stricter connection between the deity and the worldly realm. The wrong offering would require a piaculum if due to inadvertency or necessity. Neptune is one of only four Roman gods to whom it was appropriate to sacrifice bulls, the other three being Apollo, Mars and Jupiter, although Vulcan was also allowed the offering of a red bull and a red bull calf. This building substituted the older temple, which in its turn substituted a more ancient altar. The Basilica Neptuni, was built on the Campus Martius and dedicated by Agrippa in honour of the naval victory of Actium. It contained a famous sculpture of a marine group by Scopas Minor. Domitius Ahenobarbus around 40 BC doubtless because of a restoration carried out by this personage. It stood near the Circus Flaminius, the Roman racetrack, in the southern part of the Campus Martius. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, a patron of horse-racing. Neptune was likely associated with fresh water springs before the sea. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune is the brother of Jupiter and Pluto the brothers preside over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld.Salacia is his wife.ĭepictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon. Neptune is the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion.

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