Poseidon and the Sea: Myth, Cult, and Daily Life ed. by Seth D. Pevnick (review)

Seth Pevnick proposed curating an exhibition about Poseidon for the Tampa Museum of Art because there is a fine marble sculpture of Poseidon/Neptune in that museum, and because Tampa itself is a port city (7). Besides Tampa (June 14–November 30, 2014), the exhibition traveled to the Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska (February 8–May 11, 2014). Of the 125 antiquities in the catalogue, four were lent by the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art in Geneva; seven by the Museo Nazionale Archeologico in Florence; eight by anonymous private collectors; and 106 by U.S. collections.

The well-illustrated catalogue consists of seven essays and a checklist. In chapter 1, Pevnick explains that he has chosen both beautiful and functional objects, from images of Poseidon and “the creatures and activities that filled his realms” (13) to horse-head amphoras (cat. 51–53) and boat models (cat. 96–101). He discusses the earliest appearances of Poseidon in the sixth century bc, the god’s attributes, myths about him, his offspring, sea creatures, his cult, places of worship, tombs of sailors, and offerings—from 125 tiny lead fish (cat. 44: 3–8 cm long) to a huge bronze trident (cat. 43: 4.2 meters long). One type of votive offering that is not mentioned is the dedication of one’s hair or a representation of it to Poseidon after surviving a shipwreck, such as the British Museum’s inscribed relief with two braids between pilasters (inv. no. GR 1839.8–6.4), found by William Martin Leake at Boeotian Thebes in 1839.

Erika Simon shows how “the sovereign of the sea and the earthshaker was bound to his Aegean surroundings, to that unique interpenetration of sea and land” (37), and notes references to Poseidon as Earthshaker on Linear B tablets, in Homer, and on the Penteskouphia plaques. In the Odyssey, bulls are sacrificed to Poseidon at Pylos and, in the Iliad, in the Panionion at Mykale. He was worshiped in a temple at Sounion; at Isthmia, where panhellenic games were held in his honor; at Paestum (named Poseidonia after him); and in Athens, Delphi, and Delos along with other gods. Simon believes that the bronze god from the Artemision shipwreck is Poseidon, an identification that is contested by many.

Angeliki Kokkinou adds considerable information about Poseidon’s role at sea and on land. Offerings might be “displayed hanging from the sacred trees” (54) or deposited in the sea (55); one of the god’s epithets was Phykios (of Seaweed). The Posidea was celebrated in Ionian cities during the month of Posideon, the Poseidonia at Sounion. Fishhooks (cat. 88) might be dedicated after a good catch, and an Athenian trireme was named Trident. On land Poseidon was connected with horses, athletic events, bulls, fertility, and Demeter. Although women dedicated jewelry to him, they might be excluded from participating in his ceremonies. His sanctuary on Kalauria (Poros) provided asylum, and Demosthenes fled there from Athens and committed suicide in 322 bc. Cults of Poseidon were associated with entrances to the underworld, and he was feared for his agency in storms, earthquakes, and tidal waves.

The first three essays overlap in their focus on the iconography and worship of Poseidon, but then Nancy T. De Grummond takes us to Italy, to the Etruscan and Latin names Nethuns and Neptunus, Etruscan tridents, and the Italic god with a trident. In texts, Neptunus appears first at a feast called the lectisternium, “sharing a banqueting couch with Mercury” (70). Etruscan sanctuaries have not yielded offerings to Nethuns or a temple dedicated to him, but De Grummond reminds us that Nethuns appears on the Piacenza Liver, and in the Etruscan calendar known from the Zagreb Mummy Wrapping. She goes on to consider Neptune’s iconography throughout the empire, from Herculaneum to Spain to North Africa; “his final appearances in Roman antiquity show him gliding cheerfully...