Poseidon is the god of the ocean and of earthquakes, brother of Zeus, whose recorded function is to guard Alexandria and watch its entrance from the sea. His temple there is restored, his statue stands, and bulls are still sacrificed to him.
| Type | Deity |
| Spanish entry | Poseidón |
Manifestations
He has risen as water shaped into a figure, “a very big beast,” the closest to Poseidon its witnesses ever came. A “gigantic metal face” engraved like a Greek god opens at the top. On the coast, “Poseidon is angry” is said like weather.
Cult
His cult spans the coast: the Lighthouse, statue, restored temple, town, and ruins where a column in his honor stands. In pagan times the statue crowned the lighthouse; it was moved nearer the town when “the matter of the scales” took place. He is paid with the sacrifice of bulls. In the square of Venice the stillness is extreme, read by some as his absence: “I don’t feel him.”
The trident
His power comes from the Cyclops, who gave him the trident with “nature, the life born in the sea.” But “nobody saw the trident.” Odysseus killed a lesser cyclops, Poseidon’s son, and boasted of it; Poseidon cursed and shipwrecked him. Another trident is reported, “a bit more diabolical. Cold and blue,” in another bearer’s hand.
The true name
An oath or invocation exists “in the name, still accepted, of the true Poseidon,” implying false uses. A legendary dragon of several names is said to have been called Poseidon among them.
Open questions
- What “the matter of the scales” was.
- Which statue the metal face is, if either, and what it reveals when it opens.
- Whether the lost trident is the deity’s or a namesake being’s; who wields the blue one, and whether it is his weapon corrupted or a copy.
- Whether god and dragon are one, a usurpation, or a shared name; who decides which Poseidon is true.
- Sizes, distances, and the calendar of the bulls.