Pontic Steppe
114-481: Poseidon ( / p ə ˈ s aɪ d ən , p ɒ -, p oʊ -/ ; Ancient Greek : Ποσειδῶν ) is one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology , presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses. He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cities and colonies. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece , Poseidon was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes , with
228-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in
342-607: A "foot-bond" (ποσίδεσμον), or he "knew many things" (πολλά εἰδότος or πολλά εἰδῶν). Beekes suggests that the word has probably a Pre-Greek origin. The original form was probably the Mycenean Greek Ποτ(σ)ειδάϝων ( Pot(s)eidawōn ). "The inervocalic aspiration suggests a Pre Greek (Pelasgian) origin rather than an Indoeuropean one". If surviving Linear B clay tablets can be trusted, the names po-se-da-wo-ne and Po-se-da-o ("Poseidon") occurs with greater frequency than does di-u-ja ("Zeus"). A feminine variant, po-se-de-ia ,
456-535: A French Jesuit who spent most of his life in India, had specifically demonstrated the analogy between Sanskrit and European languages. According to current academic consensus, Jones's famous work of 1786 was less accurate than his predecessors', as he erroneously included Egyptian , Japanese and Chinese in the Indo-European languages, while omitting Hindi . In 1818, Danish linguist Rasmus Christian Rask elaborated
570-667: A Linear B inscription (PN EN 609), however the interpretation is still under dispute. Si-to Po-tini-ja is probably related with Demeter as goddess of grain. Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for "the Two ladies and the Lord" (or "to the Two Queens and the King": wa-na-soi , wa-na-ka-te ). Wa-na-ssoi may be related with Demeter and Persephone , or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. During
684-659: A PIE homeland, the Kurgan and Anatolian hypotheses are the ones most widely accepted, and also the ones most debated against each other. Following the publication of several studies on ancient DNA in 2015, Colin Renfrew, the original author and proponent of the Anatolian hypothesis, has accepted the reality of migrations of populations speaking one or several Indo-European languages from the Pontic steppe towards Northwestern Europe. The table lists
798-459: A black dressing and shut herself in the cavern. When the fruits of the earth were perished, Zeus sent the Moirai to Demeter who listened to them and led aside her wrath. In this cult we have traces of a very old cult of Demeter and Poseidon as deities of the underworld. In another Arcadian myth when Rhea had given birth to Poseidon, she told Cronus that she had given birth to a horse, and gave him
912-544: A conventional mark of reconstructed words, such as * wódr̥ , * ḱwn̥tós , or * tréyes ; these forms are the reconstructed ancestors of the modern English words water , hound , and three , respectively. No direct evidence of PIE exists; scholars have reconstructed PIE from its present-day descendants using the comparative method . For example, compare the pairs of words in Italian and English: piede and foot , padre and father , pesce and fish . Since there
1026-453: A detailed, though conservative, overview of the lexical knowledge accumulated by 1959. Jerzy Kuryłowicz's 1956 Apophonie gave a better understanding of Indo-European ablaut . From the 1960s, knowledge of Anatolian became robust enough to establish its relationship to PIE. Scholars have proposed multiple hypotheses about when, where, and by whom PIE was spoken. The Kurgan hypothesis , first put forward in 1956 by Marija Gimbutas , has become
1140-534: A foal to swallow instead of the child. In the Homeric Hymn Demeter puts a dark mourning robe around her shoulders as a sign of her sorrow. Demeter's mare-form was worshipped into historical times. The xoanon of Melaina at Phigalia shows how the local cult interpreted her, as goddess of nature. A Medusa type with a horse's head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water. The myth of Poseidon appearing as
1254-498: A hill, Pontomedon ( Ποντομέδων )," lord of the sea" ( Pindar , Aeschylus ) and Kymothales ( Κυμοθαλής ), "abounding with waves", indicate that Poseidon was regarded as holding sway over the sea. Other epithets that relate him with the sea are, Porthmios ( Πόρθμιος ), "of strait, narrow sea" at Karpathos , Epactaeus ( Ἐπακταῖος ) "god worshipped on the coast", in Samos ., Alidoupos , ( Ἀλίδουπος ) "sea resounding". The master of
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#17328485185331368-516: A horse and mating with Demeter was not localized in Arcadia. At Haliartos in Boeotia near Thebes Poseidon appears as stallion. He mates with Erinys near the spring of Tilpousa and she gives birth to the faboulous horse Arion . At Tilpusa we have a very old cult of the chthonic deities Erinys and Poseidon. The water-god Poseidon appears as a horse which seems to represent the water-spirit and Erinys
1482-428: A horse to seduce Demeter . Being the god of waters, Poseidon is related to the primeval water which encircles the earth ( Oceanus ), who is the father of all rivers and springs. He can create springs with the strike of his trident. He was worshipped as "ruler of the springs" and "leader of the nymphs" In Thessaly it was believed that he drained the area cutting the rocks of Tempe with his trident. In Greek folklore
1596-472: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and
1710-606: A language. From the 1870s, the Neogrammarians proposed that sound laws have no exceptions, as illustrated by Verner's law , published in 1876, which resolved apparent exceptions to Grimm's law by exploring the role of accent (stress) in language change. August Schleicher 's A Compendium of the Comparative Grammar of the Indo-European, Sanskrit, Greek and Latin Languages (1874–77) represented an early attempt to reconstruct
1824-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in
1938-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment
2052-409: A premilinary sacrifice to Acheloos At Phigalia Demeter had a sanctuary in a cavern and she was given the surname Melaina (black). The goddess was related to the black undeworld. In a similar myth Poseidon appears as horse and Demeter gives birth to a daughter whose name was not allowed to be told to the unitiated (At Lycosura her daughter was called Despoina ). Demeter angry with Poseidon put on
2166-462: A sanctuary of Poseidon near Sparta beside the shrine of Alcon, where he had the surname Domatites ( Δωματίτης ), "of the house" Homer uses for Poseidon the title Kyanochaites ( Κυανοχαίτης ), "dark-haired, dark blue of the sea". Epithets like Pelagios ( Πελάγιος ) "of the open sea", Aegeus ( Αἰγαίος ), "of the high sea" in the town of Aegae in Euboea , where he had a magnificent temple upon
2280-671: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek , and Koine may be classified as Ancient Greek in a wider sense. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek
2394-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c. 300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as
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#17328485185332508-597: A thousand years. According to the prevailing Kurgan hypothesis , the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans may have been in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Europe. The linguistic reconstruction of PIE has provided insight into the pastoral culture and patriarchal religion of its speakers. As speakers of Proto-Indo-European became isolated from each other through the Indo-European migrations ,
2622-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and
2736-421: A well as a sacrifice to him. In his benign aspect, Poseidon was seen as creating new islands and offering calm seas. When offended or ignored, he supposedly struck the ground with his trident and caused chaotic springs, earthquakes , drownings and shipwrecks . Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a safe voyage, sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice; in this way, according to a fragmentary papyrus , Alexander
2850-617: Is Neptune . Homer and Hesiod suggest that Poseidon became lord of the sea when, following the overthrow of his father Cronus , the world was divided by lot among Cronus' three sons; Zeus was given the sky, Hades the underworld, and Poseidon the sea, with the Earth and Mount Olympus belonging to all three. In Homer 's Iliad , Poseidon supports the Greeks against the Trojans during the Trojan War ; in
2964-422: Is a consistent correspondence of the initial consonants ( p and f ) that emerges far too frequently to be coincidental, one can infer that these languages stem from a common parent language . Detailed analysis suggests a system of sound laws to describe the phonetic and phonological changes from the hypothetical ancestral words to the modern ones. These laws have become so detailed and reliable as to support
3078-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of
3192-616: Is a separate deity from the oldest Greek god of the sea Pontus . In Athens his name is superimposed οn the name of the non-Greek god Erechtheus Ἑρεχθεύς ( Poseidon Erechtheus ). In the Iliad , he is the lord of the sea and his golden palace is built in Aegai, in the depth of the sea. His significance is indicated by his titles Eurykreion ( Εὐρυκρείων ) "wide-ruling", an epithet also applied to Agamemnon and Helikonios anax ( Ἑλικώνιος ἂναξ ), "lord of Helicon or Helike " In Helike of Achaia he
3306-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected
3420-457: Is also found, indicating a lost consort goddess, in effect the precursor of Amphitrite . Poseidon was the chief god at Pylos . The title wa-na-ka appears in the inscriptions. Poseidon was identified with wanax from the Homeric era to classical Greece. ( anax ). The title didn't mean only king, but also protector. Wanax had chthonic aspects, and he was closely associated with Poseidon, who had
3534-567: Is believed to have had an elaborate system of morphology that included inflectional suffixes (analogous to English child, child's, children, children's ) as well as ablaut (vowel alterations, as preserved in English sing, sang, sung, song ) and accent . PIE nominals and pronouns had a complex system of declension , and verbs similarly had a complex system of conjugation . The PIE phonology , particles , numerals , and copula are also well-reconstructed. Asterisks are used by linguists as
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3648-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to
3762-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in
3876-489: Is identified in Linear B, as 𐀁𐀚𐀯𐀅𐀃𐀚 , E-ne-si-da-o-ne . Other epithets that relate him with the earthquakes are Gaieochos ( Γαιήοχος ) and Seisichthon ( Σεισίχθων ) The god who causes the earthquakes is also the protector against them, and he had the epithets Themeliouchos ( Θεμελιούχος ) "upholding the foundations", Asphaleios ( Ἀσφάλειος ) "securer, protector" with a temple at Tainaron . Pausanias describes
3990-523: Is one from the gods who may be considered her "male paredros". The earth shaker received offerings in the cave of the goddess of childbirth Eileithyia at Amnisos in Crete . Poseidon is allied with Potnia and the divine child. Wa-na-ssa ( anassa :queen or lady) appears in the inscriptions usually in plural. (Wa-na-ssoi). The dual number is common in Indoeuropean grammar (usually for chthonic deities like
4104-630: Is possible that the name of Poseidon Helikonios in Boeotia whose fest included horseracing derives from the mountain Helikon . The Minyans had trade contacts with Mycenean Pylos and the Achaeans adopted the cult of Poseidon Helikonios . The cult spread in Peloponnese and then to Ionia when the Achaeans migrated to Asia Minor . Nilsson suggested that Poseidon was probably a common god of all Greeks from
4218-501: Is probably the personification of a revenging earth-spirit. From earlier times at Delphi Poseidon was joined in a religious union with the earth-goddess Ge . She is represented as a snake which is a form of the earth-spirit. In the Theogony of Hesiod Poseidon once slept with the monstrous Medousa near the mountain Helikon . She conceived the winged horse Pegasus who sprang out of her body when Perseus cut off her head. Pegasus stuck
4332-453: Is related to fishermen and they poured drink offerings to Poseidon - savior into the sea. The god of inland waters is very close to vegetation and Poseidon was worshipped in many cities as god of vegetation. Haloa in Athens was a fest of vegetation. The Protrygaia , a wine-fest seem to belong to Dionysus and Poseidon. In several cities Poseidon was worshipped in relation to the genealogy and
4446-424: Is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family . No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. Far more work has gone into reconstructing PIE than any other proto-language , and it is the best understood of all proto-languages of its age. The majority of linguistic work during
4560-511: The Odyssey , during the sea-voyage from Troy back home to Ithaca , the Greek hero Odysseus provokes Poseidon's fury by blinding his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus , resulting in Poseidon punishing him with storms, causing the complete loss of his ship and companions, and delaying his return by ten years. Poseidon is also the subject of a Homeric hymn . In Plato 's Timaeus and Critias ,
4674-506: The Arcadian myth Poseidon Hippios (horse) is mating with the mare-Demeter. At Thelpousa Demeter- Erinys gives birth to the horse Arion and to an unnamable daughter who has the shape of a mare. In some neighbour cults the daughter was called Despoina (mistress), which is another name of Persephone . The theriomorphic form of gods seems to be local in Arcadia in an old religion associated with xoana . According to some theories Poseidon
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4788-581: The Attic plain to punish the Athenians for not choosing him. In similar competitions with other deities in different cities, he causes devastating floods when he loses. Poseidon is a horrifying and avenging god and must be honoured even when he is not the patron deity of the city. Some scholars suggested that Poseidon was probably a Pelasgian god or a god of the Minyans . However it is possible that Poseidon, like Zeus ,
4902-509: The Dioskouroi . The Pelasgian god probably represented the fertilising power of water, and then he was he was considered god of the sea . As the sea encircles and holds the earth in its position, Poseidon is the god who holds the earth and who has the ability to shake the earth. The primeval water who encircled the earth ( Oceanus ) is the origin of all rivers and springs. They are children of Oceanus and Tethys . Farnell suggested that Poseidon
5016-580: The Dorians took the name from the older population. The form Ποτειδάϝων ( Poteidawōn ) appears in Corinth. The origins of the name "Poseidon" are unclear and the possible etymologies are contradictive among the scholars. One theory breaks it down into an element meaning "husband" or "lord" (Greek πόσις ( posis ), from PIE *pótis ) and another element meaning "earth" ( δᾶ ( da ), Doric for γῆ ( gē )), producing something like lord or spouse of Da , i.e. of
5130-459: The Erinyes ) and the duality was used for Demeter and Persephone in classical Greece (the double named goddesses). Potnia and wanassa refer to identical deities or two aspects of the same deity. E-ri-nu ( Erinys ) is attested in the inscriptions. In some ancient cults Erinys is related to Poseidon and her name is an epithet of Demeter . It is possible that Demeter appears as Da-ma-te in
5244-745: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect
5358-549: The Indian subcontinent became aware of similarities between Indo-Iranian languages and European languages, and as early as 1653, Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn had published a proposal for a proto-language ("Scythian") for the following language families: Germanic , Romance , Greek , Baltic , Slavic , Celtic , and Iranian . In a memoir sent to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1767, Gaston-Laurent Coeurdoux ,
5472-580: The Mycenean period, the ancestral male gods of the Myceneans were probably not represented in human forms, and the information given by the tablets found at Pylos and Knossos is insufficient. Poseidon was the chief deity at Pylos and Thebes . He is identified with Anax and he carried the title "Master of the Underworld". Anax had probably a cult associated with the protection of the palace. In Acrocorinth he
5586-576: The Neogrammarian hypothesis : the Indo-European sound laws apply without exception. William Jones , an Anglo-Welsh philologist and puisne judge in Bengal , caused an academic sensation when in 1786 he postulated the common ancestry of Sanskrit , Greek , Latin , Gothic , the Celtic languages , and Old Persian , but he was not the first to state such a hypothesis. In the 16th century, European visitors to
5700-566: The Orphic Hymn . Persephone is sometimes depicted with her head emerging from the ground. During the Mycenean period Poseidon was worshipped in several regions in Greece. At Pylos and some other cities he was a god of the underworld (Lord of the Underworld) and his cult was related to the protection of the palace. He carried the title anax , king or protector. His consort potnia , lady or mistress,
5814-478: The maenads , Poseidon also caused certain forms of mental disturbance. A Hippocratic text of ca 400 BC, On the Sacred Disease says that he was blamed for certain types of epilepsy. Poseidon is still worshipped today in modern Hellenic religion, among other Greek gods. The worship of Greek gods has been recognized by the Greek government since 2017. Poseidon had a variety of roles, duties and attributes. He
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#17328485185335928-548: The phratry . At Tinos he was worshipped as a healer-god, probably a forerunner of the famous Evangelistria . The bull is related to Poseidon mainly in Ionia. The sacrifice of a bull offered to Poseidon is mentioned by Homer in an Ionic festival. ( Panionia ) The sacrifices offered to Poseidon consisted of black and white bulls which were killed or thrown into the sea. Boars and rams were also used and in Argolis horses were thrown into
6042-460: The polis . Many fests of Poseidon included athletic competitions and horseracing. In Corinth his cult was related to the Isthmian games . In Arcadia his cult was related to the games "Hippocrateia" and at Sparta he had a temple near an Hippodrome . In Onchestos of Boeotia horseracing was a part of the athletic games in honour of the god. Poseidon was considered a symbol of unity. The Panionia
6156-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)
6270-471: The 19th century was devoted to the reconstruction of PIE and its daughter languages , and many of the modern techniques of linguistic reconstruction (such as the comparative method ) were developed as a result. PIE is hypothesized to have been spoken as a single language from approximately 4500 BCE to 2500 BCE during the Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age , though estimates vary by more than
6384-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):
6498-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from
6612-834: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs, PIE Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Proto-Indo-European ( PIE )
6726-538: The Great paused at the Syrian seashore before the climactic battle of Issus , and resorted to prayers, "invoking Poseidon the sea-god, for whom he ordered a four-horse chariot to be cast into the waves". According to Pausanias , Poseidon was one of the caretakers of the oracle at Delphi before Olympian Apollo took it over. Apollo and Poseidon worked closely in many realms: in colonization, for example, Delphic Apollo provided
6840-558: The North Adriatic region are sometimes classified as Italic. Albanian and Greek are the only surviving Indo-European descendants of a Paleo-Balkan language area, named for their occurrence in or in the vicinity of the Balkan peninsula . Most of the other languages of this area—including Illyrian , Thracian , and Dacian —do not appear to be members of any other subfamilies of PIE, but are so poorly attested that proper classification of them
6954-622: The Pontic–Caspian steppe and into eastern Europe. Other theories include the Anatolian hypothesis , which posits that PIE spread out from Anatolia with agriculture beginning c. 7500–6000 BCE, the Armenian hypothesis , the Paleolithic continuity paradigm , and the indigenous Aryans theory. The last two of these theories are not regarded as credible within academia. Out of all the theories for
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#17328485185337068-517: The Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Kartvelian languages due to early language contact , as well as some morphological similarities—notably the Indo-European ablaut , which is remarkably similar to the root ablaut system reconstructible for Proto-Kartvelian. The Lusitanian language was a marginally attested language spoken in areas near the border between present-day Portugal and Spain . The Venetic and Liburnian languages known from
7182-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has
7296-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in
7410-472: The authorization to go out and settle, while Poseidon watched over the colonists on their way, and provided the lustral water for the foundation-sacrifice. At one time Delphi belonged to him in common with Ge, but Apollo gave him the psychopompeion Kalaureia as a compensation for it. Xenophon 's Anabasis describes a group of Spartan soldiers in 400–399 BC singing to Poseidon a paean —a kind of hymn normally sung for Apollo. Like Dionysus , who inflamed
7524-497: The beginning. The Greeks occupied Thessaly , Boeotia and Peloponnese during the Bronze Age. In all these regions Poseidon was the god of the horses. The origin of his cult was Peloponnese and he was the inland god of the Achaeans , the god of the "horses" and the "earthquakes". When the Achaeans migrated to Ionia there was a transition to regarding Poseidon as the god of the sea because the Ionians were sea-dependent. With no doubt he
7638-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West
7752-476: The common origin of Sanskrit, Persian, Greek, Latin, and German. In 1833, he began publishing the Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend , Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavic, Gothic, and German . In 1822, Jacob Grimm formulated what became known as Grimm's law as a general rule in his Deutsche Grammatik . Grimm showed correlations between the Germanic and other Indo-European languages and demonstrated that sound change systematically transforms all words of
7866-418: The cult title "earth shaker"; in the myths of isolated Arcadia , he is related to Demeter and Persephone and was venerated as a horse, and as a god of the waters. Poseidon maintained both associations among most Greeks: he was regarded as the tamer or father of horses, who, with a strike of his trident, created springs (the terms for horses and springs are related in the Greek language). His Roman equivalent
7980-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of
8094-464: The divine child. Potnia was the Mycenean goddess of nature and she was the consort of Poseidon at Pylos. She is mentioned together with bucrania in decorated jugs and he was associated with the animals and especially to the bull. In Athens Poseidon was an inland god who created the salt-sea Erecthēιs ( Ερεχθηίς ), "sea of Erechtheus". In Acropolis his cult was superimposed on the cult of the local ancestral figure Erechtheus . In Athens and Asine he
8208-556: The earth; this would link him with Demeter , "Earth-mother". Burkert finds that "the second element δᾶ- remains hopelessly ambiguous" and finds a "husband of Earth" reading "quite impossible to prove". According to Beekes in Etymological Dictionary of Greek , "there is no indication that δᾶ means 'earth'", although the root da appears in the Linear B inscription E-ne-si-da-o-ne , "earth-shaker". Another, theory interprets
8322-577: The effects of hypothetical sounds which no longer exist in all languages documented prior to the excavation of cuneiform tablets in Anatolian. This theory was first proposed by Ferdinand de Saussure in 1879 on the basis of internal reconstruction only, and progressively won general acceptance after Jerzy Kuryłowicz 's discovery of consonantal reflexes of these reconstructed sounds in Hittite. Julius Pokorny 's Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch ('Indo-European Etymological Dictionary', 1959) gave
8436-544: The festival of all Ionians near Mycale were celebrated in honour of Poseidon Helikonios and was the place of meeting of the Ionian League . He was the patron god of the Amphictiony of Kalaureia . At Onchestos of Boeotia he was worshipped as Poseidon Helikonios . His sanctuary became the place of meeting of the second Boeotian league . At Helike of Achaea there was the famous temple of Poseidon Helikonios , which
8550-450: The folk belief. In the Greek legends Arethusa and the river Alpheus traversed underground under the sea and reappeared at Ortygia . In any case, the early importance of Poseidon can still be glimpsed in Homer 's Odyssey , where Poseidon rather than Zeus is the major mover of events. In Homer, Poseidon is the master of the sea. He is described as a majestic, scary, and avenging monarch of
8664-516: The following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c. 1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c. 1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c. 800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c. 500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been
8778-426: The ground with his hoof and created the famous spring Hippocrene near Helikon. Praxidicai were female deities of judicial punishment worshipped in the region of Haliartos in the historical times. Ttheir origin is probably the same with Erinys . Their images depicted only the heads of the goddesses probably a representation of the earth goddess emerging from the ground. Praxidice is and epithet of Persephone in
8892-556: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from
9006-472: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to
9120-425: The horse can also create springs . As god of the sea Poseidon was also god of fishing and especially of sea-fishing. Tuna was offered to him by the fishermen during the festal meal for the protection of the nets . Tuna and later dolphin was his attribute. He was worshipped in many islands and cities by the coast. At Corcyra a roaring bull near the sea-shore quaranteed a good fishing. The devastating storm of Poseidon
9234-400: The introduction of the horse and war-chariot from Anatolia to Greece around 1600 BC. In the Boeotian myth Poseidon is the water-god and Erinys is a goddess of the underworld. She is probably the personification of a revenging earth spirit and it seems that she had a similar function with the goddess Dike (Justice). At the spring "Tilpousa" she gives birth to the fabulous horse Arion . In
9348-509: The islands of the Aegean and in the cities of Asia Minor . At Lesbos and Epidauros the month was called Poseidios . During this month Poseidon was worshipped as the "master of the sea" in a bright cult. Poseidon was a major civic god of several cities: in Athens , he was second only to Athena in importance, while in Corinth and many cities of Ionia and Magna Graecia he was the chief god of
9462-451: The legendary island of Atlantis was Poseidon's domain. Poseidon is famous for his contests with other deities for winning the patronage of the city. According to legend, Athena became the patron goddess of the city of Athens after a competition with Poseidon, though he remained on the Acropolis in the form of his surrogate, Erechtheus . After the fight, Poseidon sent a monstrous flood to
9576-520: The liquid element and the underworld. In Greek folklore the horse is associated with the underworld and it was believed that it had the ability to create springs. In the European folklore the water-spirit appears with the shape of a horse or a bull. In Greece the river god Acheloos is represented as a bull or a man-bull. Burkert suggests that the Hellenic cult of Poseidon as a horse god may be connected to
9690-654: The main Indo-European language families, comprising the languages descended from Proto-Indo-European. Slavic: Russian , Ukrainian , Belarusian , Polish , Czech , Slovak , Sorbian , Serbo-Croatian , Bulgarian , Slovenian , Macedonian , Kashubian , Rusyn Iranic: Persian , Pashto , Balochi , Kurdish , Zaza , Ossetian , Luri , Talyshi , Tati , Gilaki , Mazandarani , Semnani , Yaghnobi ; Nuristani Commonly proposed subgroups of Indo-European languages include Italo-Celtic , Graeco-Aryan , Graeco-Armenian , Graeco-Phrygian , Daco-Thracian , and Thraco-Illyrian . There are numerous lexical similarities between
9804-524: The most popular. It proposes that the original speakers of PIE were the Yamnaya culture associated with the kurgans (burial mounds) on the Pontic–Caspian steppe north of the Black Sea. According to the theory, they were nomadic pastoralists who domesticated the horse , which allowed them to migrate across Europe and Asia in wagons and chariots. By the early 3rd millennium BCE, they had expanded throughout
9918-567: The name of a Greek colony at the Syrian coast. In Ionia his cult was introduced by Achaean colonists from Greece in the 11th century BC. Traditionally the colonists came from Pylos where Poseidon was the principal god of the city. The god had a famous temple near the mountain Mycale . The month Poseidaon is the month of the winter-storms. The name of the month was used in Ionic territories, in Athens , in
10032-499: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which
10146-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c. 1450 BC ) are in
10260-426: The proto-Indo-European language. By the early 1900s, Indo-Europeanists had developed well-defined descriptions of PIE which scholars still accept today. Later, the discovery of the Anatolian and Tocharian languages added to the corpus of descendant languages. A subtle new principle won wide acceptance: the laryngeal theory , which explained irregularities in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European phonology as
10374-428: The regional dialects of Proto-Indo-European spoken by the various groups diverged, as each dialect underwent shifts in pronunciation (the Indo-European sound laws ), morphology, and vocabulary. Over many centuries, these dialects transformed into the known ancient Indo-European languages. From there, further linguistic divergence led to the evolution of their current descendants, the modern Indo-European languages. PIE
10488-400: The sea who can cause devastating storms is also the protector of seafarers and he was given the epithet sōtēr ( Σωτήρ ), "savior". Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into
10602-399: The sea. In the primitive Boeotian and Arcadian myths Poseidon, the god of the underworld, appears as a horse and he is mating with the earth goddess. The earth goddess is called Erinys or Demeter and she gives birth to the fabulous horse Arion and the unnamed daughter Despoina , which is another name of Persephone . The horse represents the divine spirit ( numen ) and is related to
10716-582: The sea. The worship of Poseidon was extended all over Greece and southern Italy , but he was specially honoured in Peloponnese which is called "the residence of Poseidon" and in the Ionic cities. The significance of his cult is indicated by the names of cities like Poteidaia in the Chalkidiki peninsula and Poseidonia ( Paestum ), a Greek colony in Italy. Poseidion is a frequent Greek placename along coastlines and
10830-439: The second element as related to the (presumed) Doric word *δᾶϝον dâwon , "water", Proto-Indo-European *dah₂- "water" or *dʰenh₂- "to run, flow", Sanskrit दन् dā́-nu- "fluid, drop, dew" and names of rivers such as Danube (< *Danuvius ) or Don . This would make * Posei-dawōn into the master of waters. Plato in his dialogue Cratylus gives two traditional etymologies: either the sea restrained Poseidon when walking as
10944-759: The set of correspondences in his prize essay Undersøgelse om det gamle Nordiske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse ('Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language'), where he argued that Old Norse was related to the Germanic languages, and had even suggested a relation to the Baltic, Slavic, Greek, Latin and Romance languages. In 1816, Franz Bopp published On the System of Conjugation in Sanskrit , in which he investigated
11058-408: The study of primitive religions. In these cults Demeter and Poseidon were chthonic divinities of the underworld. Near Thelpusa the river Ladon descended to the sunctuary of Demeter Erinys (Demeter-Fury). During her wandering in search of her daughter Demeter changed into a mare to avoid Poseidon. Poseidon took the form of a stallion and after their mating she gave birth to a daughter whose name
11172-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies
11286-549: The title "Lord of the Underworld". The chthonic nature of Poseidon is also indicated by his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne (Earth-shaker) in Mycenean Knossos and Pylos . Through Homer the epithet was also used in classical Greece. (ennosigaios, ennosidas). Po-tini-ja ( potnia : lady or mistress) was the chief goddess at Pylos and she was closely associated with Poseidon. She was the Mycenean goddess of nature and Poseidon— Wanax
11400-408: The underworld in a pre-mythic period. Poseidon appears as a horse. In Greek folklore the horses had chthonic associations and it was believed that they could create springs. In European folklore the water-creatures or water-spirits appear with the shape of a horse or a bull. In Greece the river god Acheloos is represented like a bull or a man-bull. Many people when sacrificed to Demeter should make
11514-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,
11628-567: Was a Pelasgian god or a god of the Minyans . Traditionally the Minyans are considered Pelasgians and they lived in Thessaly and Boeotia . In Thessaly ( Pelasgiotis ) there was a close relation to the horses. Poseidon created the first horse Skyphios hitting a rock with his trident and managed in the same way to drain the valley of Tempe. The Thessalians were famous charioteers. Some of the oldest Greek myths appear in Boeotia . In ancient cults Poseidon
11742-831: Was a common god of all Greeks from the beginning. The earliest attested occurrence of the name, written in Linear B , is 𐀡𐀮𐀅𐀃 Po-se-da-o or 𐀡𐀮𐀅𐀺𐀚 Po-se-da-wo-ne , which correspond to Ποσειδάων ( Poseidaōn ) and Ποσειδάϝoνος ( Poseidawοnos ) in Mycenean Greek ; in Homeric Greek it appears as Ποσιδάων ( Posidaōn ); in Aeolic as Ποτε(ι)δάων ( Pote(i)daōn ); in Doric as Ποτειδάν ( Poteidan ) and Ποτειδᾶς ( Poteidas ); in Arcadic as Ποσoιδᾱν ( Posoidan ). In inscriptions with Laconic style from Tainaron , Helos and Thuria as Ποhoιδᾱν ( Pohoidan ), indicating that
11856-483: Was a title which accompanied female goddesses. The goddess of nature survived in the Eleusinian cult , where the following words were uttered: "Mighty Potnia bore a strong son". In the heavily sea-dependent Mycenaean culture, there is not sufficient evidence that Poseidon was connected with the sea; it is unclear whether "Posedeia" was a sea-goddess. The Greeks invaders came from far inland and they were not familiarized with
11970-477: Was not allowed to be told to the unitiated and a horse called Arion (very swift). Her daughter obviously had the shape of a mare too. At first Demeter became angry and she was given the surname Erinys (fury) by the Thelpusians. The Erinyes were deities of vangeance, and Erinys had a similar function with the goddess Dike (Justice). In the very old myth of Thelpusa Demeter-Erinys and Poseidon are divinities of
12084-517: Was originally the god of the Minyans who occupied Thessaly and Boeotia . There is a similarity between the Boeotian and Arcadian myths and especially between the myths which represent the god of the waters Poseidon as a horse. The mythical horse Arion appears in both regions. The offspring of Poseidon winged horse Pegasus creates famous springs near Helikon and at Troizen . Some springs of Poseidon have similar names in Boeotia and Peloponnese . It
12198-404: Was originally the god of the waters. The Greeks believed that the cause of the earthquakes was the erosion of the rocks by the waters, by the rivers in Peloponnese which they saw to disappear into the earth and then to burst out again. The god of the waters became the "earth-shaker". This is what the natural philosophers Thales Anaximenes and Aristotle believed and could not be different from
12312-529: Was specially honoured. Anax is identified in Mycenaean Greek ( Linear B ) as wa-na-ka , a title of Poseidon as king of the underworld. Aeschylus uses also the epithet anax and Pindar the epithet Eurymedon ( Εὐρυμέδων ) "widely ruling". Some of the epithets (or adjectives) applied to him like Enosigaios ( Ἐνοσίγαιος ), Enosichthon ( Ἐνοσίχθων ) ( Homer ) and Ennosidas ( Ἐννοσίδας ) ( Pindar ), mean "earth shaker". These epithets indicate his chthonic nature, and have an older evidence of use, as it
12426-413: Was the Mycenean goddess of nature. Her main aspects were birth and vegetation. Poseidon had the title "Enesidaon" (earth-shaker) and in Crete he was associated with the goddess of childbirth Eleithyia . Through Homer the Mycenean titles were also used in classical Greece with similar meaning. He was identified with anax and he carried the epithets "Ennosigaios" and "Ennosidas" (earth-shaker). Potnia
12540-487: Was the place of meeting of the Achaean League . The "master of the sea" creates clouds and storms, but he is also the protector of the sailors. He has the ability to calm the sea for a good voyage and save those who are in danger. He was worshipped with the surname "savior" as the protector of the seafarers and the fishermen. He is the "earthshaker", however he is also the protector against the earthquakes. In some cults he
12654-448: Was worshipped as Poseidon Anax during the Mycenean age. In the city there was the famous spring Peirene which in a myth is related to the winged horse Pegasus . In Attica there was a cult of Anax heroes who was connected to Poseidon. A cult title of Poseidon was "earth-shaker" and in Knossos he was worshipped together with the goddess Eleithyia who was related to the annual birth of
12768-432: Was worshipped as a horse. The mythical horse Arion was a sire of Poseidon-horse with Erinys and the winged horse Pegasus a sire of Poseidon foaled by Medousa. At Onchestos he had an old famous festival which included horseracing. However it is possible that Poseidon like Zeus was a common god of all Greeks from the beginning. It is possible that the Greeks did not bring with them other gods except Zeus , Eos , and
12882-456: Was worshipped as the "bringer of safety" or "protector of the house and the foundations". The god was considered the creator of the first horse, and it was believed that he taught men the art of taming horses. He was depicted on horseback, or riding in a chariot drawn by two or four horses. He had a lot of temples in Arcadia , with the surname Hippios (of the horse) and he was also transformed into
12996-472: Was worshipped in the house of the king during the Mycenean period. The bull was the favourite animal for sacrifices and it seems that horses were rarely used during the burial of the Mycenean leaders. In the Arcadian myths, Poseidon is related to Demeter and Despoina (another name of Kore- Persephone ) and he was worshipped with the surname Hippios in many Arcadian cities. At Thelpusa and Phigalia there were sister worships which are very important for
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