MYTHS OF NEPTUNE, RULER OF THE WATERS
[Illustration: FIG. 95. POSEIDON]
=119. Lord of the Sea.= Neptune (Poseidon) was lord both of salt
waters and of fresh. The myths that turn on his life as lord of the
sea illustrate his defiant invasions of lands belonging to other gods,
or his character as earth shaker and earth protector. Of his contests
with other gods, that with Minerva for Athens has been related. He
contested Corinth with Helios, Argos with Juno, Ægina with Jove, Naxos
with Bacchus, and Delphi with Apollo. That he did not always make
encroachments in person upon the land that he desired to possess or
to punish, but sent some monster instead, will be seen in the myth of
Andromeda[159] and in the following story of Hesione,[160] the daughter
of Laomedon of Troy.
Neptune and Apollo had fallen under the displeasure of Jupiter after
the overthrow of the giants. They were compelled, it is said, to
resign for a season their respective functions and to serve Laomedon,
then about to build the city of Troy. They aided the king in erecting
the walls of the city but were refused the wages agreed upon. Justly
offended, Neptune ravaged the land by floods and sent against it a sea
monster, to satiate the appetite of which the desperate Laomedon was
driven to offer his daughter Hesione. But Hercules appeared upon the
scene, killed the monster, and rescued the maiden. Neptune, however,
nursed his wrath; and it was still warm when the Greeks marched against
Troy.
Of a like impetuous and ungovernable temper were the sons of Neptune
by mortal mothers. From him were sprung the savage Læstrygonians,
Orion, the Cyclops Polyphemus, the giant Antæus whom Hercules slew,
Procrustes, and many another redoubtable being whose fortunes are
elsewhere recounted.[161]
=120. Lord of Streams and Fountains.= As earth shaker, the ruler of the
deep was known to effect convulsions of nature that made Pluto leap
from his throne lest the firmament of the underworld might be falling
about his ears. But as god of the streams and fountains, Neptune
displayed milder characteristics. When Amymone, sent by her father
Danaüs to draw water, was pursued by a satyr, Neptune gave ear to her
cry for help, dispatched the satyr, made love to the maiden, and boring
the earth with his trident called forth the spring that still bears the
Danaïd's name. He loved the goddess Ceres also, through whose pastures
his rivers strayed; and Arne the shepherdess, daughter of King Æolus,
by whom he became the forefather of the B[oe]otians. His children,
Pelias and Neleus, by the princess Tyro, whom he wooed in the form of
her lover Enipeus, became keepers of horses--animals especially dear to
Neptune. Perhaps it was the similarity of horse-taming to wave-taming
that attracted the god to these quadrupeds; perhaps it was because they
increased in beauty and speed on the pastures watered by his streams.
It is said, indeed, that the first and fleetest of horses, Arion, was
the offspring of Neptune and Ceres, or of Neptune and a Fury.
=121. Pelops and Hippodamia.=[162] To Pelops, brother of Niobe, Neptune
imparted skill in training and driving horses,--and with good effect.
For it happened that Pelops fell in love with Hippodamia, daughter
of [OE]nomaüs, king of Elis and son of Mars,--a girl of whom it was
reported that none could win her save by worsting the father in a
chariot race, and that none might fail in that race and come off
alive. Since an oracle, too, had warned [OE]nomaüs to beware of the
future husband of his daughter, he had provided himself with horses
whose speed was like the cyclone. But Pelops, obtaining from Neptune
winged steeds, entered the race and won it,--whether by the speed of
his horses or by the aid of Hippodamia, who, it is said, bribed her
father's charioteer, Myrtilus, to take a bolt out of the chariot of
[OE]nomaüs, is uncertain. At any rate, Pelops married Hippodamia. He
was so injudicious, however, as to throw Myrtilus into the sea; and
from that treachery sprang the misfortunes of the house of Pelops. For
Myrtilus, dying, cursed the murderer and his race.
[Illustration: FIG. 96. PELOPS WINNING THE RACE, HIPPODAMIA LOOKING ON]
FOOTNOTES:
[159] § 154.
[160] Iliad, 5, 649; Apollodorus, 3, 12, § 7.
[161] See Index.
[162] Hyginus, Fab. 84, 253; Pindar, Olymp. 1, 114.