Sea god

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Sea gods are gods or deities who, in polytheistic religions and mythologies , are closely related to a real or mythical sea or represent its personification .

designation

The category of sea ​​deity does not have a direct equivalent in any mythology, as on the one hand the function of a deity can only rarely be limited to a single area and on the other hand the image of a single god within a culture is both spatially and temporally different. This does not make it unusable, but due to the complexity of polytheistic systems it is hardly suitable for classifying or systematizing religious structures.

A fundamental distinction is to be made between cosmogonic primeval oceans, from which the world or other gods emerge, personified concrete seas and deities who rule the sea or inhabit the sea, where a deity can combine several of these ideas.

Old Orient

In the earliest tangible mythology of the ancient Orient , Sumerian mythology , the beginning of all things is the sea goddess Nammu . It produces the pair of gods An and Ki , from which the great gods emerge. She witnesses the god Enki , ruling over the freshwater , who lives in the subterranean freshwater ocean Abzu . In the Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and other ancient oriental mythologies, the motifs of an ancient ocean and an underground freshwater ocean are adopted and further developed. In Babylonian mythology , the saltwater ocean called Tiamat is contrasted with the freshwater ocean Abzu as another primordial deity. Their connection creates the pair of gods An and Ea , from which further gods emerge. Abzu and Tiamat are killed here by the younger generation of gods under the leadership of Marduk , who creates heaven and earth from Tiamat. The Hittites and Hattians knew a sea ​​god whose daughter was called Ḫatepuna . The sea ​​god of the Hurrites , however, had a daughter named Šertapšuruḫi , who gave birth to the god Kumarbi the sea serpent Ḫedammu .

Greek mythology

In Greek mythology , a variety of deities are referred to as the sea god. With the exception of Poseidon , hardly any cultic veneration is attested, so that their classification as a sea god is mainly based on works of poetry. Greek polytheism is characterized by openness regarding the composition of the pantheon.

A list by Walter Pötscher names eight sea deities:

  • Poseidon , originally a god of the inland waters, who is introduced by Homer as the ruler of the seas when he leaves his dwelling underwater towards the battlefield and is recognized by the water dwellers as their master.
  • Amphitrite , Poseidon's wife.
  • the Tritons developed from the single god Triton , following the example of other gods associations and the multitude of sea creatures . Their number made them seem terrifying.
  • the nereids are nymphs and inhabit the Mediterranean and were conceived from the beginning as a larger group, the individual design of individual nereids comes from poetic adaptations.
  • the "old sea man" Halios geron is probably one of the oldest Greek sea gods. The father of the Nereids, Nereus, confronts him as the elderly sea god , who, however, could have been derived from the Nereids.
  • Proteus , a particularly changeable god, had an ability that was also generally ascribed to the sea gods.
  • Phorkys is the son of Pontus and brother of the sea monster Keto and was the father of numerous monsters with Keto.
  • Glaucus was transformed into a sea god because of his love for the sea.

Some sea deities, such as the entirety of the nymphs (female deities of lower rank in Greek mythology), are missing from this list. In Greek cosmogony , the first gods were also thought of as part of the world, from which other parts of the world emerged. In Hesiod's theogony, Pontus is one of the first deities, the personification of the Mediterranean and the father of the sea deities Nereus, Thaumas , Phorkys , Keto and Eurybia . Okeanos is in Hesiod with Tethys the father of the Oceanides and the Orphics intended as a primeval ocean. The sea goddess Thalassa is attested late in poetry and probably never had religious significance.

The openness of the Greek polytheistic system is particularly evident in Poseidon. In the early cult he is equal to his brother Zeus and in some places superior, in Homeric poetry he is still able to challenge him. But even Dionysus can turn wicked sailors into dolphins, which is why his image is carried through the city on a ship at the Athenian festival of Anthesteria . In less maritime city-states like Sparta , the Poseidon cult is concentrated on those aspects that are not related to the sea. On the other hand, ritual votive inscriptions and votive offerings from the context of seafaring could be addressed to the most varied of deities, not just to the sea gods.

Celtic mythology

Due to the few written documents, a comprehensive illumination of the sea is difficult from a mythological point of view in Celtic mythology . Clear assignments of gods to the sea are rare. So the Irish god Manannan is most surely attributed to the sea. This is difficult due to the writing of the Celtic legends by Christian monks and the associated changes, but some properties and descriptions of the legendary figure point to the assignment of the god. His name is Manannán mac Lir ([ manaNaːn mak L'ir ], Irish for "Manannan, son of the sea") and frequent references in legends about the sea or an empire in or beyond the sea suggest this assumption. Also Lir itself is so awarded to the sea, but the association is uncertain. The same goes for the Welsh equivalents Llŷr and Manawyddan .

List of sea gods

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The meaning of sea gods in the various cultures is unclear, the list is incomplete, concrete literature or evidence.
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Old Orient
Egyptian mythology
Mythology of the Ainu
Aztec mythology
Daoism
Fijian mythology
Finnish mythology
  • Ahti , god of the deep and fish
  • Vellamo , wife of Ahti, goddess of the seas, lakes and storms
  • Vedenemo , a water deity
  • Iku-torsu , a hateful sea monster
Mythology of the Fon
Germanic mythology
Greek mythology
Hawaiian mythology
Japanese mythology
Inca mythology
  • Pariacaca , god of water and the god of heavy rains
Kyrgyz mythology
Māori mythology
Roman mythology
voodoo
Yoruba mythology

literature

Web links

Commons : Sea Gods  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volkert Haas : Die Hittitische Literatur , Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018877-6 , pp. 115 f., 117 f., 153 ff., 160.
  2. ^ Walter Pötscher: Sea gods. In: The Little Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, column 1136 f.
  3. ↑ Albin Lesky : Thalatta . Rohrer, Vienna 1947. pp. 95ff.
  4. ↑ Homer : Iliad 13, 20ff.
  5. ↑ Albin Lesky: Thalatta . Rohrer, Vienna 1947. pp. 122ff.
  6. ↑ Dietrich Wachsmuth: Pompimos ho Daimon. Investigations into the ancient sacred acts during sea voyages . Berlin 1967.
  7. ^ Bernhard Maier : Lexicon of Celtic Religion and Culture (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 466). Kröner, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-520-46601-5 .
  8. ^ Sylvia and Paul Botheroyd: Lexicon of Celtic Mythology . Diederichs - Verlag, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-424-01077-4