Who was Pontus?
He was one of the primeval, or primordial gods, who was the son of Aether and Hemera. Pontus brought all the fish and other creatures of the sea into the world. Pontus is often depicted, as the above mosaic shows, as strong, powerful, middle aged, bearded and his head is adorned with a pair of lobster-claw horns. The name Pontus was given to the sea when it was first created. The Black Sea was called Pontus Euxinus by the ancients Pontus and the Dynasties of Greek Gods
According to mythology, Pontus and the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses consisted of three major dynasties from different generations: - The First generation of Ancient Greek Gods were the Primordial or primeval deities, to which Pontus belonged
- The Primordial, or Primeval, gods were those that existed at or from the beginning of time and resided within the region of the universe known as the Elemental Chaos
- The Second generation were the Titans
- The Third generation of were the Olympian gods
Pontus Family Tree and Genealogy
The god Pontus was worshipped as the great god of the sea and was the consort of his sister Gaia, the Earth Mother. The children of Pontus and Gaia were the sea-deities Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia - The sea god Nereus, the 'Old Man of the Sea' lived in the depths of the sea with his wife Doris and their daughters the Nereids
- The sea god Thaumas married an Oceanid called Electra. Their children included the Harpies, the personifications of sudden tempests, whose names were Aello, Ocypete, and Celaeno and Iris, the goddess of rainbows and a messenger of the gods
- Phorcys and Ceto: Phorcys was the sea god of the hidden dangers of the deep and was consort to his sister Ceto, the primordial sea goddess. Phorcys was depicted as a fish-tailed merman with crab-claw fore-legs and red-spiked skin. The offspring of Phorcys and Ceto were:
- Echidna the sea dragon, half woman half snake (the mother by Typhon of many monstrous offspring)
- The Gorgons (Euryale, Stheno and Medusa) whose petrifying gaze created the reefs and rocks of the sea
- The Graeae or gray witches (Deino, Enyo, and Pemphredo)
- Ladon, the hundred headed sea serpent or dragon that guarded the golden apples in the garden of of the Hesperides
- Scylla (the crab) a she-monster who devoured passing sailors
- The sea goddess Eurybia who became the consort to the titan Crius and gave birth to Astraeus, Perses, and Pallas
He was also the consort of Thalassa the sea goddess. His union with Thalassa produced all sea life and the Telchines. |
