Nereus. Among the pre-Olympian gods of the sea, Oceanus, Proteus, and Nereus are the most important and sometimes are confused. Heracles (see the Apples of the Hesperides labor in M/L, Chapter 22) is shown wrestling with Nereus on sixth-century black-figure vases: one in Paris by the Gorgon painter shows him with a serpentine body. In red-figure vases he is human in form but holds a fish, as in another version of the struggle with Heracles (ca. 490, also in Paris).
Thetis. Of the Nereids, the most important is Thetis, who also could change her shape; her mortal husband, Peleus, had to wrestle with her to win her in a scene that was ingeniously painted on several Athenian vases (e.g., two black-figure vases from the sixth century now in London). For the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and for her part in the Trojan saga, see M/L, Chapter 19.
Acis, Galatea, and Polyphemus. The myth about the Nereid Galatea is narrated by Ovid in Book 13 of the Metamorphoses, the source of a very large number of paintings, among which a fresco by Raphael, The Triumph of Galatea (1511, painted for the Villa Farnesina in Rome), is preeminent. The transformation of Acis is the subject of powerful drawings by Nicolas Poussin (ca. 1620, now in Windsor), and Poussin's painting Landscape with Polyphemus (1649, now in St. Petersburg) is a profound meditation on the coming tragedy.
Amphitrite. Bacchylides has a beautiful description of the submarine home of the Nereid Amphitrite in his dithyramb that narrates the myth of Theseus and Minos (see M/L, Chapter 23): a red-figure vase by Onesimos (ca. 500 B.C., now in Paris) shows her giving her wreath to the boyish Theseus as Athena looks on. Like Galatea, she is primarily shown in postclassical art riding over the sea in triumph, her chariot drawn by dolphins and escorted by Poseidon, sea horses, Nereids, Tritons and other sea-gods, while cupids fly around her. The outstanding example of this genre is an exuberant painting, The Triumph of Amphitrite by Poussin (1637, now in Philadelphia).
Oceanus and the Oceanids. The chorus in Aeschylus' drama Prometheus Bound is made up of Oceanids, and Oceanus himself and Oceanids (or Nereids) escort Marie's ship in The Disembarkation of Marie at Marseilles in Rubens' Medici cycle (see Chapter 4). Oceanus is described in the Iliad as a river encircling the earth on the shield of Achilles. In vasepaintings he has the same appearance as Nereus: on the vase by Sophilos (before 575 B.C.) he replaces Nereus in the wedding procession of Peleus and Thetis, even though Nereus is the father of the bride. He appears frequently in Roman mosaics as a bearded old man, for example, in a second-century A.D. mosaic from Verulamium (St. Alban's, England), where he is horned and has seaweed for hair. In later art and music he symbolizes sea power, and is so shown in the design by Rubens for the title-page of the Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi, the book published at Antwerp in 1641 containing the designs and Latin inscriptions for the ceremonial entrance of the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp in 1635. Shelley introduces Oceanus in the third act of his Prometheus Unbound (1820), where he foretells an end of battle and bloodshed on the sea.
Poseidon. Poseidon is regularly shown as a bearded man, robed and wielding a trident, and on one early red-figure vase also carrying a fish (ca. 520 B.C., by Oltos, now in Copenhagen). He is also shown on horseback or riding a hippocamp (sea horse), as in a black-figure vase (ca. 490) now in Oxford. The statue of the nude god known as the Zeus of Artemisium (ca. 460, now in Athens) could also represent him, if the god’s missing weapon is a trident rather than a thunderbolt. Poseidon's most important appearance in classical art is on the west pediment of the Parthenon (ca. 440 B.C.), which showed his contest with Athena for control of Attica. He is also shown on vases in association with Theseus. In postclassical art, usually with his Roman name, Neptune, he is very common as a symbol of water, of sea power, or of storms. There are many paintings and engravings that show him as the escort of Amphitrite or calming the storm that wrecked Aeneas (Book 1 of the Aeneid) or favoring some historical figure sailing across the sea. A representative example of the first motif is Poussin's Triumph of Amphitrite (see above); the second and third motifs are combined in Rubens' oil-sketch Neptune Calming the Tempest (The Cardinal Infante Ferdinand Sailing from Barcelona to Genoa (1635, now in Cambridge, Massachusetts: the large painting from this sketch is now in Dresden). Originally Rubens designed this scene for one of the three paintings on the Arch of Welcome at the Entry of Ferdinand into Antwerp in 1635, and it was engraved for the Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi (1641: see above). The references to Neptune calming the storm in Book 1 of the Aeneid have also led to the erroneously titling of this painting as Quos Ego, a quotation from Neptune's speech at Aeneid 1.135. The painting is a compendium of marine mythology: in it are Neptune, hippocamps, Triton, Nereids, and, above, Boreas (the North Wind) and smaller figures of two other winds. All these classical figures and allusions are used by Rubens for the purpose of contemporary political allegory.
Triton. This snake-bodied sea-god is generally made out to be the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, whom he escorts as they ride over the sea. He is memorably described by Ovid in the first book of the Metamorphoses, blowing his conch shell to order the Flood to recede, and these lines have inspired countless paintings and other works of art. Triton is also a significant ornament in gardens, parks, and city squares: a famous example of an urban fountain is the Fontana del Tritone in the Piazza Barberini in Rome, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1642.
The many other sea-gods and sea monsters, whose forms are limited only by the imagination of artists and poets, will be discussed later as they make their appearance in saga.
Chapter 8
