On Poseidon, In Greek Mythology

In the ancient Greece, religion life and society life were closely linked.Religion exists in each part of society life. So it is a good point of view to analyzethe society of ancient Greece through the aspect of religion. But compare witheconomics, ancient Greek religion has fewer documents. Especially in ourcountry, it is hard to find any information about ancient Greek religion. It is afield that still waiting for exploit.This thesis focuses on Poseidon, the most important Sea-god of ancientGreece and try to analyze the ancient Greek society with myths, religion andsociety life. Many aspects should be referred. This thesis could not discuss everyone because of the limit of length but only concerned the changing of deity andstatus of Poseidon from the Crete-Mycenaean Age to the Classical Age. Deitymeans what Poseidon represented and symbolized, such as the nature power,society function. Status includes the status in theory (the status in the myth) andthe true status (the position in the true life) of Poseidon. Besides, the thesis alsoanalyzes relative myths and parts of the religionary life of the ancient Greek.By the limited of data, this thesis only makes a general conclusion whilediscussing from the Crete-Mycenaean Age to the Archaic Age and introducesAthens as an example while discussing the Classical Age as well.The deity and status of Poseidon were changing in each period of the ancientGreece. About his deity, he had owned or owning some deities at least includeearth-god, horse-god, sea-god and earthquake-god. His deity in early time (theCrete-Mycenaean Age) was well-known as earth-god and horse-god (though themajor scholars admit his deity as an earth-god, but some scholars still opposethis. Furthermore, he may have another deity as a water-god). After theMycenaean Age, Poseidon has clear deities as sea-god, horse-god andearthquake-god. His status is very high in early time. Along with the end of theMycenaean Age, his status was changed. His status is always very high in theory:he is the most important sea-god, one of the three gods who allot the world to three parts, and his brother is Zeus. In fact, however, his status in theory is farfrom his true status: only some inshore areas worship him. Because of his deity,his significance is far from the agriculture-god in the ancient Greek society thatattaches importance to the agriculture. Furthermore, in Athens of the ClassicalAge, Poseidon's status had been well improved because of the victory of the warbetween Greece and Persia.