Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Poseidon.
The gallery
Poseidon of Melos
Unknown (Hellenistic), c. 125–100 BC
Hellenistic marble statue of Poseidon found on the island of Melos, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. The sea god stands in a commanding pose, his raised right hand once gripping a trident, with a dolphin at his feet supporting the figure.
Neptune and Triton
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1622–1623
Early marble group by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, carved to crown a garden fountain in Rome and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Neptune thrusts his trident downward to command the waters while the young Triton crouches between his legs, blowing a conch shell.
Neptune Calming the Tempest (Quos Ego)
Peter Paul Rubens, 1635
Rubens stages Virgil's Quos ego: Neptune rises from the surge to still the storm, his trident the axis of command while winds and sea-horses scatter. Painted for Antwerp's festive entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and now in the Harvard Art Museums (Fogg), it remains the Baroque image of the sea god as weather itself.
Andrea Doria as Neptune
Agnolo Bronzino, c. 1545–1546
Bronzino casts the Genoese admiral Andrea Doria as the classical sea god — nude, trident in hand, a living allegory of maritime power. The Mannerist portrait fuses Renaissance statecraft with Poseidon's iconography; Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.
Poseidon and Amphitrite (Pompeii mosaic)
Unknown (Roman), 1st century AD
Roman floor mosaic from Pompeii's House of the Grand Duke of Tuscany: Poseidon and Amphitrite ride a sea-chariot drawn by hippocamps, a domestic image of the divine couple who rule the deep. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
On screen
Clash of the Titans
Desmond Davis
Harryhausen's sea god looses the Kraken at Zeus' command — Poseidon as the hand that opens the deep, even when the thunderbolt gives the order.
The Odyssey
Andrei Konchalovsky
Konchalovsky's miniseries keeps Poseidon as Odysseus' implacable enemy: the blinded Cyclops' father who will not forgive, and will not let the sea go still.
Immortals
Tarsem Singh
Tarsem's pantheon brings Poseidon into the melee against the Titans — trident and seafoam in a fight choreographed like a Renaissance fresco come loose.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Chris Columbus
Columbus's demigod film makes Poseidon the absent sea-father of its hero — the earth-shaker's claim on Percy is the secret that opens the gates of Camp Half-Blood.
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Thor Freudenthal
The sequel keeps Poseidon's bloodline at the centre: a voyage into the Sea of Monsters where the sea god's son must claim a piece of the golden fleece.
Ulysses
Mario Camerini
Kirk Douglas's Technicolor Odyssey keeps Neptune as the wanderer's implacable foe — the sea itself weaponised after the blinding of Polyphemus.
In music & on stage
Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria
Claudio Monteverdi
Monteverdi's Venetian homecoming opens with Nettuno still raging over the Cyclops: Poseidon as the opera's unforgiving weather, delaying the bow until the gods relent.
Idomeneo
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's opera seria turns on a vow to Neptune: the sea god who saved Idomeneus from shipwreck and now demands the first living thing the king meets on Cretan sand.
Phaëton
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Lully's tragédie en musique brings Neptune onto the stage of solar hubris — the sea god among the deities who watch Phaethon's chariot burn the world.
In play
Hades
Supergiant Games
Poseidon's boons in Supergiant's roguelike are all knockback and surf — the earth-shaker as a splash of force that clears a room.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Rick Riordan
Riordan's demigod series makes Poseidon the absent father of its hero: the sea god's claim on Percy is the secret that opens Camp Half-Blood and a generation's gateway into Greek myth.
God of War III
Santa Monica Studio
The trilogy's opening on Mount Olympus pits Kratos against Poseidon himself — the sea god torn from his chariot and drowned in his own element before the siege of Zeus begins.
Age of Mythology
Ensemble Studios
Ensemble's strategy classic lets Greek players choose Poseidon as a major god — naval power, hippocampi and earthquake myth units from the earth-shaker's cult.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Ubisoft Quebec
Ubisoft's Aegean sandbox is Poseidon's domain in all but name: ship battles, coastal shrines and the sea god's cult threaded through a Classical Greece of sail and spear.