Pontus (mythology)

Mythology

For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho póntos (), by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea. After the castration of his brother Uranus, Pontus, with his mother Gaia, fathered Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea), Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of the Sea, embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia. With the sea goddess Thalassa (whose own name simply means "sea" but is derived from a Pre-Greek root), he fathered all sea life.

In a Roman sculpture of the 2nd century AD, Pontus, rising from seaweed, grasps a rudder with his right hand and leans on the prow of a ship. He wears a mural crown, and accompanies Fortuna, whose draperies appear at the left, as twin patron deities of the Black Sea port of Tomis in Moesia.

Sources

Hesiod

Hyginus

Notes

References

• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: (Vol. 1), (Vol. 2).
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. .
• Gaius Julius Hyginus, Fabulae from The Myths of Hyginus translated and edited by Mary Grant. University of Kansas Publications in Humanistic Studies. Online version at the Topos Text Project.
• Hesiod, Theogony from The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Greek text available from the same website.

References

1. Beekes, R. S. P.. (2009). "Etymological Dictionary of Greek". Brill.
2. Evelyn-White, Hugh G. Ed.. (1914). "The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation". William Heinemann Ltd.
3. [[Hyginus (Fabulae). Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#0.2 Preface]
4. The [[Black Sea]] was the Greeks' ''ho pontos euxeinos'', the "sea that welcomes strangers".
5. [[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hes.+Th.+233&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0130:chapter=233&highlight=Earth 233–239]; Gantz, p. 16; Grimal, s.v. Pontus. For a genealogical table of the descendants of Gaia and Pontus, see Gantz, p. 805.
6. Rengel, Marian. (2009). "Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z". Infobase Publishing.
7. Morford, Mark P. O.. (1999). "Classical Mythology". Oxford University Press.
8. Turner, Patricia. (2001). "Dictionary of Ancient Deities". Oxford University Press.