1000 Classical Characters Briefly Described

Who was Iphigenia? What did Cincinnatus do? A thousand gods, heroes and tyrants of the classical world, each explained in the time it takes to read a text message.

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Neptunus

Known to the Greeks as Poseidon.

One of the gods, son of Saturn and Ops, and brother to Jupiter and Pluto. He was devoured by his father as soon as he was born, and restored to life again by a potion given to Saturn, by Metis, the first wife of Jupiter. Neptune shared with his brothers the empire of Saturn, and received as his portion the kingdom of the sea. He did not think this equivalent to the empire of heaven and earth which Jupiter had claimed, therefore he conspired to dethrone him. The conspiracy was discovered, and Jupiter condemned Neptune to build the walls of Troy. He married Amphitrite, who thus broke a vow she had made of perpetual celibacy.

The term Neptune is often used to signify the sea itself; thus Shakespeare, in his Tempest, act v. scene 1, says: "Ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune."

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