The gate of the year

Painting on Corinthian pottery, dating to 550-525 B.C., now in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
It represents the god Poseidon, armed with his trident. Generally considered as the Master of the Sea, Poseidon was one of the most ancient deities of Greece and was probably in origin a god associated with the earth. In the Homeric poems he is called, in effect, with the epithet of “Earth Shaker”. His power was manifested in violent and uncontrollable phenomena, like the earthquakes, telluric upheavals and sea tempests. The god was furthermore associated with men’s associations and initiation rites: at Ephesus, during a festival to Poseidon, boys acting as wine pourers were called “bulls”, and the god himself was sometimes called “Bull”. It is possible that these festivals were derived from ancient initiatory associations of “bull-warriors”, existing in the Archaic age (Bremmer 2005c). Poseidon’s offspring were also wild creatures, of an immense physical strength and characterized by a ferocious violence: the most well-known of them was Polyphemus, the Cyclops.

[Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poseidon_Penteskouphia_Louvre_CA452.jpg]




Male Symbols

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Painting on Corinthian pottery, dating to 550-525 B.C., now in the Louvre Museum, Paris. It represents the god Poseidon, armed with his trident. Generally considered as the Master of the Sea, Poseidon was one of the most ancient deities of Greece and was probably in origin a god associated with the earth. In the Homeric poems he is called, in effect, with the epithet of “Earth Shaker”. His power was manifested in violent and uncontrollable phenomena, like the earthquakes, telluric upheavals and sea tempests. The god was furthermore associated with men’s associations and initiation rites: at Ephesus, during a festival to Poseidon, boys acting as wine pourers were called “bulls”, and the god himself was sometimes called “Bull”. It is possible that these festivals were derived from ancient initiatory associations of “bull-warriors”, existing in the Archaic age (Bremmer 2005c). Poseidon’s offspring were also wild creatures, of an immense physical strength and characterized by a ferocious violence: the most well-known of them was Polyphemus, the Cyclops. [Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Poseidon_Penteskouphia_Louvre_CA452.jpg]