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Episode 62: Greek Deities
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Welcome back Witches! This week we're bringing you another deity episode. We're going to be discussing a couple of Greek Deities and man is this pantheon wild!! So get in losers and let's talk about the Greek Deities Artemis and Poseidon.
We would be forever thankful if you left our podcast a 5-Star review. If you really loved the show and want more Get in Loser content, check out our Supercast & Buy Me a Coffee links below. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @GetinWitches, on TikTok @weredoingwitchcraft, or email us at weredoingwitchcraft@gmail.com. You can support our show through our links below.
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio- The Witch
References
- Atsma, Aaron J. Artemis. (2017). Theoi Greek Mythology. https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Artemis.html
- <a href="https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/artemis/">Artemis – Goddess of Hunting: https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net</a> - Greek Gods & Goddesses, November 19, 2021
- Otherworldly Oracle-Kitty. Goddess of the Hunt & Moon: How to Work with Artemis. (2020). https://otherworldlyoracle.com/goddess-of-the-hunt/
- Heather Cowell, "Poseidon: The Greek God of the Sea", History Cooperative, March 8, 2022, https://historycooperative.org/poseidon-greek-god-of-the-sea/. Accessed April 27, 2023
- Mark Cartwright, “Poseidon.” World History Encyclopedia, 04 September 2019, https://www.worldhistory.org/poseidon/. Accessed April 27, 2023
- Judika Illes, “Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses. 2009
- Youtube:
- Chaotic Witch Aunt
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Witchcraft Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Do you feel drawn to learn more about witchcraft in the occult but feel lost on where to start? Then welcome to Get In Loser, we're doing witchcraft, a podcast all about what it means to be a witch and where to get started on your journey. Join us as we navigate through various witchy topics and share what we've learned about the craft. So get in witches as we discuss some Greek deities.
00:00:48
Speaker
To start us off though, I will give a disclaimer that I have a puppy up here. Yes. He's sleeping right now. He's being such a good boy. He is being a good boy. He may get up and be rowdy. Who knows?
Challenges in Fostering Animals
00:01:02
Speaker
So if you're a little puppy running around, you're welcome.
00:01:08
Speaker
And we should set a reminder for whenever this episode releases that you put a picture up of Baby Rude on Instagram. We can put them on book club too so everyone can see them. Yeah. Can we make a note? Because Tiffany failed.
00:01:29
Speaker
I did. I foster failed. You foster failed. I couldn't think of the exact word. I was like failed in adoption, but no, that's not it because you adopted him. You foster failed. I did. I foster failed. I made it. He was my fourth foster. We came very close in the first two that we got with our second one because she was super, super sweet. Anthony really loved her.
00:01:54
Speaker
And I think that's part of why he was so like, let's just keep him because he's always like, how's Bella doing because he went to my friend's mom, my friend Kevin's mom adopted her. And she sends me pictures all the time and like goofy little things about her. But he'll always be like, how's Bella doing and I think he got like
00:02:13
Speaker
FOMO for not adopting her. So when we got to where his first adoption, I think I told you about it, but we did a meet and greet. Everything was great. She set up scheduled a time to adopt him the next day and then just ghosted us. And we were like, cool. What the fuck? And then he had other meet and greets set up.
00:02:36
Speaker
But because she was like, no, I'm going to adopt him, they went to other puppies because they were like, well, he's already being adopted. So I think at that point, he was like, fuck it, we're keeping him. Yeah. He's so cute. Check out our socials, guys, because we can see some pictures of this baby. This precious handsome boy. He sleeps. Anthony lets him sleep in our bed like Nix.
00:03:05
Speaker
And he'll like, he'll start in the middle, like with Nyx, they like snuggle. And like throughout the night, he'll just slowly creep closer and closer to me. And then he sleeps with his head right here, like on my neck and shoulder. He'll just be like, I'll wake up and he's just like asleep snuggled in. So cute. That is really, really cute. There's nothing cuter than whenever like a dog
00:03:28
Speaker
acts like a human when they're sleeping. It is so cute. I love it. He's the sweetest boy. I love him so much. I'm glad we kept him. Yeah. I know. And we might actually have found Freya a home. No. Julia might take her.
00:03:51
Speaker
Well, I guess that's fine because then you'll still see that time. Yeah, she's just like she is the sweetest cat on the planet, but she is not thriving here. And I think she needs to be in a single cat home. We've had her for two and a half, almost three years now, I think. And she's
Greek Deities and Content Warning
00:04:10
Speaker
not getting any better. She's not getting used to being with other cats. And she's just like a little stressed out gremlin all the time. So it's not fair to her.
00:04:19
Speaker
Yeah. So Julia, we were talking the other day and she was like, um, talking about how she thinks she wants to get a cat. And she's just trying to figure out like the logistics of like, where would she put a litter box and those kinds of things. And I jokingly was like, I'll give you Freya. And she was like, no, seriously, I'll take her. So we might, we might be rehoming her with Julia. Yeah. Because I love her, but yeah.
00:04:47
Speaker
I also want her to live comfortably and not be stressed out all the time. Right. Exactly. Well, I mean, just think of the life that you gave her because like she basically adopted you guys anyway. She forced us like to allow her to live here. Yes. Yeah. Like she needed a home and you gave that like you fostered her for as long as you could essentially. You know what I mean? So the fact that like either she'll be there with
00:05:14
Speaker
like she'll get so much love from Julia and the girls. Yeah. Yeah. So I hope, like, I hope that that's what happens because other than that, like, you know, when we first took her in, we tried finding her a home and yeah. And I won't take her to a shelter. Like I won't do that to an animal. I'm not going to.
00:05:37
Speaker
You're like, here you go, shelter, it's your problem now. Right, yeah. So we never wanted to be a multi-cat home. And then we took Ntokan, because he's just too fucking sweet. And then Freya showed up, and we were like, we do not want three cats. We'll find her a home. And then nobody wanted her. And we were like, oh, well, I guess we'll live here now. So now we are a three-cat home. But hopefully. Hopefully.
00:06:05
Speaker
a two cat home soon. Cause I want her to like live a good life and thrive and be comfortable and happy where she is. And I don't think she's that way with other cats. Like she's fine with the dogs. The puppies stress her out a little bit, but like she's always loved the dogs. It's just the cats. So. Hmm. I mean, I get it. Sometimes it's hard to be a social with your other kind. I get it.
00:06:36
Speaker
I hate humans. So it's perfect. Yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah. So a little, I guess, forewarning about this episode, like we kind of mentioned this off. Well, I guess it was recorded, but it's probably going to be cut. Yeah, because that's pre pre
00:07:02
Speaker
No, it was post, right? I don't know. I don't even know. It was like pre-intro, so it's somewhere. We do a lot of recording at some point. Yeah. For anybody who's curious, just FYI, we have been recording for an hour. Nothing related to the podcast, though. It's just us shooting the shit. So we're finally actually recording the episode.
Artemis: Myths and Practices
00:07:28
Speaker
But this episode, I mean, there are some, I mean, when you're talking about Greek deities, there's some rapiness, there's some uncomfortable things. There's lots of murdery, very sexual, a little bit of rapey, a little bit of peeping Tom.
00:07:51
Speaker
little bit of incest, you know, just take that kind of salt.
00:08:00
Speaker
It kind of comes with, I feel like Greek deities. They're not going to get around it, unfortunately. They're wild. Not that we're condoning any of this terrible behavior, but we just want to throw out this disclaimer. We don't remove information because this is what it is, but just be forewarned. Absolutely. You want to take it off?
00:08:29
Speaker
Yes. So I'm going to be talking about Artemis. She's also known as the Beautiful One. She of the Wild, Mistress of the Hunt, Lady of the Wolves, Mistress of Animals, and the Eternal Virgin, which is kind of a cool story that I think I'm going to talk about pretty soon. I can't remember where it's at in my notes.
00:08:52
Speaker
I did my notes like two weeks ago. And then I was like, wait a second, we're recording too this week? I didn't do the research. So she is one of the 12 Olympians and the daughter of Zeus, which Zeus has lots of children with lots of people.
00:09:13
Speaker
Zeus is the king of the gods and then her mother is Leto or Leto. I couldn't find a definite pronunciation on this one. They were like saying it both ways interchangeably. So either Leto or Leto, I'm not 100% sure.
00:09:29
Speaker
and she was a Titaness. Artemis is the Virgin Olympian goddess of hunting, the forest, the wilderness, and of wild animals. The moon, archery, dance, truth, virginity, childbirth, the protectress of girl children up to the age of marriage,
00:09:49
Speaker
And then her twin Apollo was the same for boy children. And when paired with her twin, they were considered the bringers of sudden death and disease.
00:10:00
Speaker
I love that. Right. They there's this whole story about them like taking out a bunch of people. But in those situations, Artemis targeted women and girls, which is like the opposite of protecting them. And Apollo targeted men and boys. They are basically the male and female versions of each other in a sense. And as a caveat,
00:10:23
Speaker
Oh, you guys get to hear all of the fun attempts, pronunciations here. Okay. Aeschylus texts state that she and Apollo are actually the children of Demeter. Egyptian texts state that they're the children of Dionysus and Isis with Leto or Leto being their nurse. And these other depictions have also changed their birthplace for some reason.
00:10:52
Speaker
And in terms of her virginity, it's said that she appealed to Zeus to grant her eternal virginity to allow her to remain faithful to only herself and also paradoxes her to rule over sexual energy, which I loved.
00:11:09
Speaker
During the Classical period in Athens, Artemis is sometimes referred to as Hecate, because Artemis was a virgin and was known to protect her chastity at any cost. She captured the attention of both gods and men across the land, because of course, gross. They're like, oh my god, a virgin.
00:11:30
Speaker
That is disgusting. So gross. And it's said that the giant Orion was her only love. She is an important goddess to women, especially in terms of marriage and young children. She often acted out of anger when her wishes were disobeyed or when anyone mistreated or killed her sacred animals or mistreated young children.
00:11:53
Speaker
Her name also translates to mean uninjured, healthy, and vigorous, making her the goddess who is herself inviolate and vigorous while granting strength and health to others. Because of her mother's Titan heritage, Artemis is the granddaughter of the four elder Titans, Cronos, Rhea,
00:12:13
Speaker
Kios, and Phoebe. And because of Zeus's reputation, she was also the half-sister of many of the Olympian gods and goddesses like Athena, Aries, Hermes, Dionysus, and Persephone. Historically, Artemis is depicted as a girl or a young maiden with a bow and a quiver of arrows. Her most distinctive attributes are her bow and arrows, but she is also sometimes depicted with hunting spears, a torch, a lyre, which is a musical instrument,
00:12:42
Speaker
and or a water jug. She's often clothed in a knee length tunic when she's depicted as a young girl or in a full length gown when depicted as a full grown woman. Other common depictions of her clothing are a cloak, some form of headgear to include like a crown, a tiara, a headband, a bonnet, or an animal pelt cap. And she's also sometimes shown wearing the pelt of a deer draped across her shoulders.
00:13:12
Speaker
Her sacred animal is the deer, and she's often shown driving a chariot drawn by a pair of beasts. I couldn't find what those beasts were, and I tried looking up different pictures of her. And some of them looked like these crazy wolves, and some of them were just horses. So I'm not really sure. I feel like that was very inconsistent in any of the depictions of her. So some pair of beasts pulls her chariot.
00:13:40
Speaker
Um, and she'll either be holding or hunting a deer. These particular depictions will also include a deer skin cape on her shoulders and hunting hounds. And then the temple of Artemis was built in her honor and it became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, which I thought was pretty cool. That is cool. I did not know that. Right?
00:14:03
Speaker
And then when you're looking at her lore, Lido was consistently being hounded by Hera, who was actually Zeus's wife throughout her pregnancy because Zeus had an affair with her, but like who didn't Zeus have an affair with, right?
00:14:19
Speaker
So this forced Lido to wander the world in search of a safe refuge from Hera, and she landed on this floating island of Delos, where she first gave birth to Artemis, who was then said to assist her mother as a midwife in the birth of Apollo the next day. The midwife piece is explained by the fact that Artemis was considered a precocious, divine child, and the importance of the island being floating.
00:14:44
Speaker
was because that Hera, out of jealousy of Leto and her anger at Zeus, forbade Leto to give birth on solid land. So she chose a floating island because why not?
00:14:57
Speaker
And then Artemis, having been born first, was also known to be a fierce protector and nurturer to Apollo, and that later translates to her protection for young children. The puppy's chewing on a toy, so if you guys can hear that, that's what that noise is. He is awake from his nap, so sorry guys.
00:15:21
Speaker
Her handmaiden was Callisto, and Callisto was seduced by Zeus, because of course she was. And when Artemis learned of her pregnancy, she transformed Callisto into a bear and exiled her into the wilds, though some stories say that she actually hunted her in her bear form and killed her. So I'm not 100% sure, but one or the other.
00:15:43
Speaker
The giant Orion, who I mentioned earlier, was said to be one of her closest companions and the keeper of her heart, but out of jealousy, Apollo tricked her into killing him with a long-distance bowshot. In her grief, she placed Orion in the stars as a well-known constellation that is named after him that we all know.
00:16:02
Speaker
There is some contradictions to this story because if you look into Orion's mythology and lore, he was actually killed by a scorpion. So I'm not 100% sure, but in Artemis' lore, it says that she kills him because Apollo tricks her out of jealousy. So I don't know. It could be either.
00:16:27
Speaker
One day while she was bathing with some of her nymphs in a spring, a hunter named Octaeon spied on her and then tried to force himself on her, at which point she became enraged, which rightfully so. She transforms him into a stag and then she has him torn apart and devoured by his own hounds. That's what you get.
00:16:55
Speaker
fitting. Yeah, yeah. As with many of the stories surrounding Artemis though, there's different versions of this story. So some state that Octaeon was her hunting companion versus just being some weird peeping tom in the woods.
00:17:11
Speaker
And then there was a Roman poet named Ovid who depicts him from a more innocent stance, saying that he saw her naked on accident and there's no mention of him trying to force himself on her in this poetry. So again, there's so many variations of all the stories surrounding her that I just want to put them all out there because I don't know which one to go with.
00:17:38
Speaker
When King Onias neglected her for his sacrifices to the gods, she sent a giant Caledonian boar to ravage his lands as punishment. And in other boar-related lore, Artemis is also known to have sent a wild boar to kill Adonis after he continually boasted that he was a better hunter than her by far. Other stories say that Artemis actually killed Adonis out of revenge for the death of Hippolytus, who was one of her hunters.
00:18:07
Speaker
So the story goes that Aphrodite killed Hippolytus. So in turn, Artemis just killed her lover Adonis. She was like, sucks to suck. Right. Again, fitting. Yeah. Yeah. King Agamemnon.
00:18:25
Speaker
was said to have killed a stag in Artemis's sacred grove, offending her. So when he and his Greek army were preparing to sail to Troy, she in turn calmed the waters to prevent his departure. And to appease her, the king was then forced to sacrifice his own daughter. I practice this one a lot and I still can't get this right. So his own daughter, Iphigenia, Iphigenia.
00:18:59
Speaker
However, you say that one. I'm gonna go with Efiania. He placed his daughter on the altar, but Artemis saved her and replaced her with a dough on the altar for sacrifice, but like veiled it so that it still looked like her.
00:19:17
Speaker
And there's no story about Ephiania's life afterwards, but there are some scholars that believe she became an immortal companion to Artemis. Some depictions of this story also reflect the opposite in that she transformed the winds to ravage his ships at the commencement of the Trojan War, rather than having calmed the waters to keep them from sailing out. So again, I'm not really sure which one is the actual one, but either way.
00:19:44
Speaker
Upon hearing Niobe, the queen of thieves, bragging of her superiority over Leto because she had seven sons and seven daughters while Leto only had birthed twins, Artemis and Apollo set out to defend her honor. Some lore state that they killed all 14 of her children with poison arrows, Artemis the girls, Apollo the boy in their typical fashion, while other stories say that they only spared one of each.
00:20:10
Speaker
Hearing that all of his children were dead, their father, Amphion, killed himself while Niobe wept and Artemis turned her to stone.
00:20:20
Speaker
She was also known as a divine ally to the Trojans during the Trojan War. And it's said that in a clash between rival factions of the gods, she actually confronted Hera. But Hera tore her bow from her hands and beat her head with it and sent Artemis basically fleeing back to Olympus in tears. Hera's like, I need time for this bullshit, little girl. Get out of here. Get out of here, love child.
00:20:50
Speaker
And then I included a little bit on how to work with Artemis. This isn't my wheelhouse at all. I don't work with deities myself, so I had to do a little bit of research. But I will say Chaotic, which on YouTube, she's somebody that we have referenced several times on the podcast.
00:21:11
Speaker
She has an entire video sharing her own personal experience working with both Artemis and Apollo and how they helped her through like self-care and setting boundaries and independence. So if you're really interested in working with her, I would check out Chaotic Wijant's channel for some more information on deity work with her in particular.
00:21:32
Speaker
But her correspondences include for places, it would be the forest or wild grows or bodies of fresh water. For plants, mugwort, wormwood, and tarragon, which are all known as Artemisia plants. And there's more in that category, but
00:21:51
Speaker
Those are the main ones. Cedar, myrtle, oak, fig, bay, walnut, willow, and fir. For crystals, moonstone, amethyst, quartz, moss, agate, diamond, silver, and pearl. I guess silver is not really a crystal, but I threw that in there.
00:22:12
Speaker
I didn't even know. I know I was like, wait, that should have been in its own category of metal. But you guys know what you guys know. Okay. And then animals. The main ones are bears, wolves, stags, hounds, fish, quails, bees, boars, dolphins, goats and cats. But just keep in mind that she is considered the lady of beasts. So pretty much any animal is going to typically be sacred to her.
00:22:39
Speaker
for offerings using any of the Artemisia plants in oils or incense, honey cakes, boars tusks, bow and arrow representations, or even an actual bow and arrow, bark or fruits from her sacred tree, and erotic dance. And it's said that she particularly likes offerings to be left at crossroads or any that are done in care of her forest and wild animals made in her name.
00:23:07
Speaker
You can dedicate an altar space to her and give her regular offerings. Spend time learning about her or her sacred wild animals. Spend time in the forest or at a local body of fresh water. Grow and work with Artemisia family herbs, as I discussed earlier. Wear or work with any of her crystal correspondences.
Poseidon: Myths and Significance
00:23:27
Speaker
Take an archery class or study midwifery. Or by simply being a fierce protector of animals, wildlife and the forest, women and children.
00:23:37
Speaker
But children sometimes, unless you're killing them, right? I'm just kidding. Unless you're the bringer of what was it? Death and... Like destruction and shit? Yeah. Then you can just be like, fuck them, kids. But if you're not one of those rampages, then you protect them. Then you protect them, yes. Yeah. I love that. They're wild. They're wild. Greek deities are wild. They really are.
00:24:08
Speaker
Moving on to another wild deity, let's talk about Poseidon. Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea and rivers, the creator of storms and floods, and the bringer of earthquakes and destruction. He's often referred to as the Earthshaker.
00:24:29
Speaker
Like, I know, right? Like, I saw that mentioned, but then there wasn't really any descriptions on like, I just imagine him like holding the earth and like shaking it like shaking or something. Yeah, probably. It's like a shake weight. Yeah.
00:24:50
Speaker
That would be more his style. It really would. He's known as Neptune and the Roman mythology, but Neptune was originally a god of fresh water, but the two gods kind of merged with time due to their similarities and throughout more and
00:25:07
Speaker
Everything so he is also known as a protector of mariners the tamer of horses and patron of horses and horse breeding and he was said to be the very first creator of the horse which he designed as a reflection of the beauty of rolling waves and surf.
00:25:25
Speaker
which I thought that was interesting. So you see that symbolism and that imagery like in certain Disney movies and stuff with like horses and water and shit. So while he received worship from inland cities, most of his prayers and worship came from sailors and fishermen when they were setting sail on the Mediterranean. And he's usually depicted riding a chariot, pulled by horses and dolphins, wielding a trident.
00:25:53
Speaker
I think that probably should be horses or dolphins, but who knows? Either way, I guess it works. So more about his origin and his family.
00:26:08
Speaker
and just kind of more about him. Colts dedicated to Poseidon go back as far as like the Mycenaean civilization. So think Alexander the Great, Cleopatra back then. At its peak, this was around the 15th to the 12th century BCE and as far back as the Bronze Age. So he might have been one of the most important deities of the Mycenaean civilization because they were known for their seafaring ways.
00:26:36
Speaker
But I mean, that's not like I mean, we don't know that for sure, but that's just what they think And Greek mythology Poseidon was the son of Kronos and Rhea brother of Zeus and Hades and Kronos learned of a prophecy that he would be overthrowned by his child didn't specify which one so because of this Kronos immediately swallowed his first five children and
00:27:02
Speaker
which was Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia.
00:27:10
Speaker
Like, I mean, I just, I can't. Like, why would you? Why would that be your first thing that you would do? But whatever. So Raya gave birth again and she hid her youngest son and gave Kronos a rock wrapped in a blanket to eat instead. Which, how stupid could Kronos be if he is fooled by a rock wrapped in a blanket?
00:27:35
Speaker
But the son of course was Zeus and he was raised by nymphs and was determined to overthrow his father when he came of age. There are two stories about how Zeus got the other gods expelled from Cronus, but so one is that Zeus disguised himself as a cup bearer and snuck his father poison that made him ill and thus he vomited up his
00:27:59
Speaker
five children slash Zeus's siblings are like in his belly for however long this has been.
00:28:06
Speaker
right for a really long time. He's got the slowest digestion of anyone I've ever had. And then it's like, do they come out as babies or like full grown adults? Like, I don't know. I have so many questions. How long was his stomach cavity? I don't. Yeah, right. Like, also, was he like, so have you really constipated this whole time? Like, I just don't know.
00:28:34
Speaker
And then the second one, the second story that they tell about this is Zeus supposedly befriended the daughter of one of the Titans and the goddess of prudence, and this is Metis. Metis tricked Cronus to eat her, I almost said herb again, why do I do this? Metis, no, nope, Metis.
00:29:02
Speaker
Basically, because there's so many pronunciations in this episode and I'm going to stumble all over every single one. But Matisse tricked Cronus to eat an herb that caused him to vomit and vomit up his children.
00:29:23
Speaker
Either way, they were eventually able to overthrow their dad and lock him and any other Titans that stood in their way into the prison of Tartarus. I should have looked that up. I don't know if that's how you say it, but I did not look that word up. Tartarus? Tartarus, does that sound right?
00:29:44
Speaker
It's in a movie. I don't know which one, but I've heard Tartarus. Okay. Maybe it's in like Hercules or something. Maybe. It could be. Could be. I don't know, but I have heard Tartarus before, so. Perfect. We're just going to call it that.
00:30:02
Speaker
So Poseidon fitted the prison with fancy new bronze gates to hold them there. And when all was said and done, Poseidon, Zeus, and Hades drew lots to decide which domain they would reign over, which is how Poseidon became the god of the seas. The only thing is like why wasn't like, you know, there was five siblings that he ate, right? Like why didn't Hera, Demeter, and Hestia also like be put in for
00:30:31
Speaker
like to reign over the sky, the underworld, or the seas too. Why was it only the guys? It doesn't make sense. Typical. So of course Poseidon became the god of the seas, but there was already a god of the seas.
00:30:50
Speaker
And this was Nereus, the son of Gaia and Pontus. And he was widely considered a gentle and wise God, usually depicted as half-ish, half-older gentlemen, think like Ariel's dad. Yeah. Yeah. And so Nereus handed over the rule of the seas to Poseidon just like that. He was just like, OK, I guess you're going to be the new ruler. Like, I'm such a sweet guy. Here you go. So yeah.
00:31:19
Speaker
That's how Poseidon became the god of the seas. Wow. And his home sounds amazing, sounds exactly like right out of the Little Mermaid. He lived in a golden mansion at the bottom of the sea floor adorned with coral and sea flowers and gemstones. Sounds beautiful. Done. I'll never go because I'm terrified of the ocean. You are. But the house included a stable of his white horses.
00:31:47
Speaker
of course. But also I'm like, where they see horses though, like, because they're at the bottom of the ocean. How does that work? So I've, what is that book? There's Maggie Stiefetter, I don't know how to say her last name, but she wrote a book called, I cannot remember, but it's basically about water horses. It's like,
00:32:18
Speaker
I'm going to have to look it up. It's going to drive me crazy. It's a pretty good book, but they're like, they're like made from the sea essentially. So that's what I was picturing. That's pretty cool. Yeah. I'll have to send it. I have not heard of that, but yes, send that to me. Maybe we'll post it on our socials for this episode because I am intrigued. Oh, the Scorpio races. That's what it's called. But yeah, it's, they're like water horses, but they're also like,
00:32:49
Speaker
super dangerous because they'll like eat you too. No, thank you. Another reason to be scared of the ocean. So getting into something equally as scary, Poseidon's love life, which is pretty gross. So like most Greek gods, this is a direct quote that I'm pulling off of a website.
00:33:15
Speaker
Hold on, let me grab it because I don't even remember anymore and I meant to put it in there, but I forgot. This is a direct quote from Mark Cartwright's article on Poseidon. Basically, he says, like most Greek gods, Poseidon possessed a wondering eye and a lustful appetite, which is gross. That's not right. He was attracted initially to his older sister.
00:33:42
Speaker
Demeter, goddess of agriculture and harvest. Demeter was not interested, of course, and she in turn tried to hide from him by turning herself into a mare and hiding amongst the horses of Kean. I tried looking up this name. I couldn't find a way to pronounce it, but Kean, Onkyos? Onkyos? Onkyos, whatever it is, ruler of Arcadia. But of course,
00:34:11
Speaker
The creator of the horse was not an idiot, and he was smart enough to see through that disguise, and he changed himself into a large stallion and forced himself on his sister. And I just take that as a horse with a horse schlong. It makes it even worse. Yeah. So of course, Demeter was fucking pissed.
00:34:34
Speaker
She retreated to a cave and refused to come back to Earth, which caused a famine on the world. And she only returned when she washed herself in the river and should have looked this up too, laid on or led on, something like that. Not sure. And after that, she felt purified. And
00:34:55
Speaker
then she was able to kind of like, you know, come back to herself and come back to Earth and save everybody from this famine. She gave birth to two of Poseidon's children, Despina, the goddess of mysteries, and a horse, which sounds terrible to give birth to, Arianne, with a black mane and
00:35:18
Speaker
tail and the ability to speak. Could you imagine how traumatizing would the B to A get raped, but then B give birth to a horse that could talk? No, no, thank you. No, thank you.
00:35:33
Speaker
That's when Planned Parenthood would have really come in handy. But anyway, so he was also super into his niece Aphrodite. Of course he was. Sister wasn't enough. Had to go for his niece too. And Aphrodite, as we all know, is the goddess of love. Aphrodite was far more willing to bang her uncle than Demeter was. Especially as he stood up for her when she was caught red-handed by her own husband
00:36:07
Speaker
Hephaestus when she was cheating on him with Aries. So Aphrodite had twins by Poseidon, a girl named
00:36:17
Speaker
Herophilus or Herophilus or Herophilus, I should have looked this up, but I didn't. She was a prophetess and Rodus or Rodos, I don't know, the goddess of the island of Rhodes. Yeah, so he's just having babies with everybody. Another conquest slash
00:36:40
Speaker
victim of Poseidon was Medusa. And this story is so sad to me because I did not know this one at all. Medusa was once a beautiful mortal woman who was a priestess of Athena. And in order to be a priestess, she was required to remain a virgin. And of course, Poseidon being Poseidon, he wouldn't leave her alone and wouldn't take no for an answer. And he ended up raping her and
00:37:07
Speaker
The temple of Athena when Athena found out She unfairly took her anger out on Medusa by turning her into a gorgon Which was a hideous creature with snakes for hair who would turn any living being to stone with her gaze and that's why I don't know if you've seen anything about it, but like in the past like I don't know probably a year or two she's been become like a
00:37:33
Speaker
the symbol for survivors of sexual assault. I have not seen it like tattoos of Medusa and it's supposed to symbolize them overcoming. I love that. Yeah. But I did not know that and I've not seen those tattoos. I love that.
00:37:52
Speaker
I don't love that that happened, but I love that she is the symbol for that because that is really sad and I did not know it. So after a while Poseidon decided he needed a wife and therefore set his sights on Merus' daughter, Amphitrite, who was a sea nymph.
00:38:12
Speaker
I did look up how to pronounce that one. Probably butchered it, but I did look it up. She was not interested in his proposal and fled to the farthest reaches of the earth where Atlas held the sky, just to escape him. Jesus. Instead of chasing her down and raping her, he must have learned his lesson somewhere because he sent his friend Delphin, a fellow sea god who took the shape of a dolphin, to convince him for training. Of course.
00:38:40
Speaker
Right, of course he did. Or the dolphin. So dumb. Right? Like, of course. Of course. But he tried to convince her to marry Poseidon and she inevitably agreed and they had a son named Triton. King Triton. King Triton, there you go. And two daughters named Rode and
00:39:09
Speaker
This word is so long for no reason. I don't know, which means wave of the deep. We're just going to call her B for short. So moving on from his terrible love life, Poseidon had a very hate
00:39:34
Speaker
not really love hate, but more like hate-hate relationship with Athena. They had a rivalry over a city in southern Greece and they decided to have a contest. They would each gift the city something and let the people decide which gift they liked the best.
00:39:59
Speaker
Poseidon struck the ground, creating a spring of water to well up at the city center. And everybody was like amazed by this like water and like they're like, Oh, this is amazing. We love it. Until they realized the water was fucking seawater and had no use. Like the residents couldn't use this water. It just looked cool. Stupid.
00:40:22
Speaker
Right. Yeah. So Athena then planted an olive tree, offering the gift of food, commerce, shade, and wood. And of course, she won and the city was named Athena.
00:40:34
Speaker
not Athene's. And of course she won and the city was named Athens in her honor. And then love it. Yeah. So yeah, there's a lot more and they're like tumultuous relationship, but that's just kind of like, that's just the, you know, the, the highlights, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, to kind of like,
00:41:04
Speaker
sum up like a little bit of, um, what am I trying to say? To kind of sum up Poseidon, I can't really talk about him without discussing the Iliad and the Odyssey. Um, because there, I mean, if you don't know, I'm sure you do because we all had to read it in school. Um, they mix historical art. Oh my God. The Iliad and the Odyssey mix historical fact and fictional legend. And Poseidon was
00:41:34
Speaker
featured heavily and dealing in the Odyssey in many different ways. In this work, it was said that, no, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. Let me try and figure out how I'm going to say this.
00:41:57
Speaker
Starting off Poseidon was supposedly not satisfied with just the seas and he would often try to interfere with Zeus's plans and he once tried to overthrow Zeus with the aid of Hera and Apollo. While Zeus was sleeping, Hera let them in or kind of like gave them the like
00:42:19
Speaker
Hey FYI, he's sleeping, um, signal. And they stormed his house or whatever where he lives. I can't remember what it's called.
00:42:31
Speaker
And they stole his thunderbolts and imprisoned him. However, soon there were a lot of arguments between all the gods about who would take Zeus's place. And fearing this would mean death and destruction for the world, Poseidon worked to free Zeus. As punishment though, he was made to build the walls of Troy with Apollo. And so they basically had to work as slaves under King Leomodom.
00:42:59
Speaker
who knows, for one year. During the Trojan War, even though he helped create the impenetrable walls of Troy, he worked against the Trojans and in support of the Greeks. And during the Trojan Wars, all of the gods took sides and interfered.
00:43:15
Speaker
and he would work against Zeus again because Zeus was on the Trojan side, but Hera was also on the Greek side because she was pissed that Paris claimed that Aphrodite was the fairest goddess and not her. So I mean, just crazy. The great gods are just like fucking babies about everything. They really are.
00:43:35
Speaker
So basically Hera was like, you know what, I'm going to seduce Zeus, lull him to sleep with my sexy body. And then that way, Poseidon was able to maneuver his way to the front lines on the Greek side and help defeat the Trojans.
00:43:54
Speaker
Um, and so, you know, they did that. And of course, Zeus was pissed. Yeah, there are other minis, like tons of side stories where Poseidon appears in the Iliad in the Odyssey, especially related to like Odysseus and the wrath Poseidon brings on him for killing his Cyclops son, but
00:44:12
Speaker
I mean, we'd be here all day if I went into depth on those, so I'm not going to. But really, I think one of the biggest things here is related to the Trojan horse. And so as many of us know, especially if you saw Orlando Bloom's fine ass and Troy, the Trojans were inevitably deceived by the Greeks with their Trojan horse.
00:44:34
Speaker
For those who don't know, the Greeks built a large wooden horse dedicated to Athena, but also as an offering to Poseidon for safe travels home across the sea, et cetera, et cetera. He's the god of horses and shit. The Trojans thought the Greeks abandoned the fight and fled, and they wheeled this massive horse inside their city walls as a trophy.
00:44:57
Speaker
But before they did, a Trojan priest, he was suspicious and voiced his opinion that the horse should not be brought into the city. And because of this, Poseidon sent two snakes to strangle him and his two sons. And the Trojans took this as a sign that the priest was wrong and offended the gods with his caution.
00:45:20
Speaker
Um, when actually he was like trying to warn them all, like, you guys are idiots. You're like, oh no, you're dumb. You're gonna die. But, um, so that night the Greeks, hiding in the horse, broke out of the horse, opened up the gates, and the Greek army came in and sacked Troy. And that was all in help from Poseidon. So, I bet you didn't know that because they don't really talk about that in Troy.
00:45:48
Speaker
We do see Orlando Bloom's finance, so there's that. Yes. But to sum it all up, working with Poseidon, very controversial figure, but if you do want to work with him, he can be invoked for fertility, although I will say that that is very controversial, but I'm just saying what has been... I mean, he's obviously very fertile. Yes. Because of all of his twins and...
00:46:13
Speaker
horse children, but also he's a baby. Yeah, so I don't know about that. But you could also invoke him for abundance and protection at sea. Many of his functions were reassigned to St. Nicholas when Christianity was invented, of course they were. Of course. So there's some correlations there. But as far as offerings, you could do anything like sea water, shells,
00:46:39
Speaker
dolphin figurines or anything that comes from the sea, as well as anything related to horses or anything equine in nature, manes, brass hooves, anything like that. He may manifest, if you see him as a vigorous bearded man or a merman or a horse, his attribute
00:47:02
Speaker
I don't know where I went with that. His attribute is his trident. His spirit allies are, of course, his wife, Emperor Triton, their son Triton, and sometimes he's seen with nymphs or dolphins. And he's associated with the pine and ash trees and the number eight. And as far as his sacred site,
00:47:28
Speaker
There's actually a sanctuary on the Greek island of Tenos, or Tenos, I'm not sure how to say that, famed for its healing miracles. But of course, a church was built over the sanctuary, like fucking Christians, always. But there is a sacred spring there that remains renowned for its miracles. And I've read online that a lot of people will go there, say, if they've been diagnosed with cancer or some other sort of disease,
00:47:57
Speaker
drink from the water or like splash the water on them and try to invoke Poseidon for like protection and healing.
Episode Conclusion
00:48:06
Speaker
So that is Poseidon.
00:48:10
Speaker
Wow, what a wild ride. A wild ride, kind of rabby. Super rabby. Yeah. Kind of super rabby. Super incestuous, you know, I mean, that's pretty common in deities. Well, and then also too, because Zeus married his sister, married his older sister. Yeah. And I mean, like outside of even the Greek pantheon, it's pretty
00:48:38
Speaker
pretty common. I know mix and is it Erebus as her brother? We're also husband and wife. Like that's just a common thing that happens across pantheons for whatever reason. And it's gross. Yes. Yeah. Yuck. Yeah, that's a
00:49:06
Speaker
a couple Greek deities for you guys. There you go. Yeah. That's it for this episode of Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft. You can find our source material for this episode linked in the show notes. If you love this episode, we'd be forever thankful if you leave us a five star review on wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you really love the show and want more Get In Loser content, check on our Supercast link provided in the show notes or search the Supercast website for Get In Loser, We're Doing Witchcraft.
00:49:34
Speaker
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