ORPHIC HYMN POSEIDÓHN

Poseidóhn (Poseidôn or Neptune / Gr.
Ποσειδῶν)
(Hear,
Neptune, ruler of the sea profound, whose liquid grasp begirts the solid
ground;
Who, at the bottom of the stormy main, dark and deep-bosom'd, hold'st thy
wat'ry reign;
Thy awful hand the brazen trident bears, and ocean's utmost bound, thy will
reveres: thee I invoke, whose steeds the foam divide, from whose dark locks the
briny waters glide;
Whose voice loud founding thro' the roaring deep, drives all its billows, in a
raging heap;
When fiercely riding thro' the boiling sea, thy hoarse command the trembling
waves obey.
Earth shaking, dark-hair'd God, the liquid plains
(The third division) Fate to thee ordains, 'tis thine, cærulian dæmon, to
survey well pleas'd the monsters of the ocean play, confirm earth's basis, and
with prosp'rous gales waft ships along, and swell the spacious sails;
Add gentle Peace, and fair-hair'd Health beside, and pour abundance in a
blameless tide.)

- During the
invocation of Poseidon, through his Orphic Hymn, the Fumigation was from from
Myrrh.
- 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 Magna Graecia
he was the chief god of the polis.
- 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.
- In the Odyssey, Poseidon is notable for his hatred of Odysseus who blinded
the god's son, the Cyclops Polyphemus. The enmity of Poseidon prevents
Odysseus's return home to Ithaca for many years. Odysseus is even told,
notwithstanding his ultimate safe return, that to placate the wrath of Poseidon
will require one more voyage on his part.
- Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a safe voyage, sometimes drowning horses as a
sacrifice.
- According to Pausanias (Greek traveler and geographer / 2nd century AD),
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 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.
- Xenophon's Anabasis (Athenian historian, philosopher, and soldier / 430 - 354
BC) 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 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.
