For this weeks installment of random tattoo cell phone pics I bring to you the king of the sea. Poseidon!
Did this a few years ago.
It was in one of my mixed phone files on my laptop, so not sure exactly when.
What I remember about the piece is that the guys had an existing piece that was tribal styled on the back of his arm.
It needed a tad of work and resembled a mask.
In the lower left area of the picture you can see a round shape. That was part of the existing work. I re-did that and gave it blended shade to mix it into the new piece.
(click the pic to see it bigger)
Poseidon is one of the most famous of all the Olympian Gods.
(From Wikipedia)
“Poseidon was a son of Cronus and Rhea. In most accounts he is swallowed by Cronus at birth but later saved, with his other brothers and sisters, by Zeus. However in some versions of the story, he, like his brother Zeus, did not share the fate of his other brother and sisters who were eaten by Cronus. He was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which she gave to Cronus to devour.”
Poseidon is the Greek “God of the Sea”, and was often called “Earth-Shaker”because he cased so many earthquakes. In many stories he is called the “tamer of horses” without much explanation, but I find it very interesting because of another story.
Though she is not one of Poseidon’s famous loves, (and he had many) there is a story involving Demeter that intrigues me.
It is not just because Demeter, whom is one of my most favorite of all the goddesses is involved either. (though that is why I originally got into the story)
It is because it gives the first/oldest account of the myth of talking horses.
It is a weird story.
Demeter is the sister of Poseidon and Zeus.
She turns herself into animals pretty often in stories and in a couple cases ends up having sex and then bearing children to her brothers.
I’ll skip the Zeus story for the most part, but a bit of it is relevant to the Poseidon one, so here is the gist of it.
Basically at one point Zeus and Demeter got it on while both in the form of giant snakes/serpents and she ended up having a daughter named Persephone from the act.
(That’s all you get… look it up)
Persephone and Demeter did well together. They were very close. They were the goddesses of harvest, growing things, etc… (very important stuff)
Hades (another brother to Demeter) fell in love with Persephone and and without notice of any sort kidnapped her and brought her to the underworld.
With Persephone gone and Demeter freaking out the crops all started to die within the week.
Zeus spazzed out because all humans would die if the crops couldn’t grow. Hades wouldn’t return her because he loved her above all things. Zeus sent Hermes down to the underworld to make a deal.
The deal was that if Persephone would marry Hades she would live half the year in the underworld and half above with her mother so she could help the crops.
The deal was set, and to make her homecoming lovely Demeter made it so that every spring flowers would pop up all over in honer of Persephone’s return. (Why we have spring flowers)
On the other hand… when Persephone returns to Hades Demeter gets depressed and all the crops die and flowers wont grow. (The cycle of spring / summer / winter / fall)
Whats that got to do with talking horses and Poseidon?
Well… when Hades ran off with Persephone, the world went bad cause crops couldn’t grow and the gods all went wacko trying to fix it, one god decided that while Demeter was so stressing would be a good time to hook up with her.
Poseidon.
Demeter was feeling mighty alone and wandering the lands.
Her daughter was gone from her. She had found out that Zeus had arranged it with Hades.
Alone and depressed she wandered. She had spurned Poseidon’s advances.
He decided it was a good time to rape her.
She got away and then turned herself into a horse so she could hide.
Poseidon found her grazing with a herd.
He turned himself into a huge stallion and raped her.
She bore him two children. One was the the goddess Despoine. The other was a horse. The horse (named Areion or Arion) who could speak in the tongue of man.
To be fare… there are a ton of conflicting stories about the horse and its parentage.
It is first mentioned in Homer’s Song of Ilium (usually just called The Iliad)
Gotta love mythology!
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