The Sea God: Poseidon: The Sea God

The Sea God: Poseidon

From the tales of Ancient Greece to the retellings of Ancient Rome, Poseidon remains one of the most mentioned, worshipped, and studied god in history. He is even mentioned today from the tales of Percy Jackson, being the father of the main character, Percy (Perseus). And to SpongeBob Squarepants, where he is renamed Neptune and is the King of the Sea and all of Bikini Bottom and onward. The Sea God still is part of our books and movies and influences others to question his immensity. Like the other well-known gods, Poseidon carries stories of his time, shares relations with other Gods, and continue to inspire artists of our day to reinterpret his image in exaggerating his greatness. Poseidon, the God of the

It was found in a shipwreck off Cape Artemision and refurbished to what it may have looked like during its time. (Artemision Zeus or Poseidon). Standing a little over 2 meters high, it is sculpted in the nude fashion whilst being posed in the ready position to pitch an object. The body was made in the idealized image of the Greek’s superior overseers. The eyes of the sculpture likely inlaid with glass but had gone missing as time passed. On the account of the sculpture being found undersea, it had gone through much degradation and was thought to be done in Early Classical Style in bronze and was presumably made around 460 B.C.E (Artemision Zeus or Poseidon). The model of the sculpture closely resembles that of either Zeus or Poseidon, which leaves much confusion and speculation of who the piece represents. Consequently, there have been arguments that the piece may not represent Poseidon, but instead Zeus. The theory came about during the time when the sculpture was first being studied; the right hand grasping an object that would have helped archaeologists to identify the god, but the piece is lost. Most Art Historians believed it to be Zeus for his weapon was a thunder bolt and would not obscure the face of the work (Artemision Zeus or Poseidon). Another possibility is that the sculpture was made of bronze, a form that only gods of high

Sculpted by a German sculptor named Johann Christoph Petzold, the work is made of marble and was installed at Borsen in 1744 (Johann Christoph Petzold). Petzold was mainly influenced by the Neo-Hellenistic artworks and studied them for most of his schooling in Denmark, which is brought out in his work of Neptune. Must like the Zeus/Poseidon, the proportions of the body shows great naturalism, and the idealised image of what gods must have appeared. And yet, even though he is mostly in the nude, the cloth that covers his front drapes similarly to how the cloths on sculptures hug the body of the work. The original he had created was mostly lost in a fire along with another sculpture he’d done of Mercury or Hermes of the Greek gods (Johann Christoph Petzold). Today, the redone original can be seen in the city museum, and its replica free for the public to view in front of Borsen. Yet, the statue done by Petzold is not the only one of the few other sculptures of Poseidon/Neptune that are spread all over Copenhagen. Most statues found by the tourist areas, harbors and ports were coordinated in a way that it would be befitting to have the God of the Sea close to bodies of water. Some cultural folks of the land remarked that it reminds them of the god that controls their waters and the history that go along with them. Poseidon, in some cultures, a reminder