Neptune (mythology)

Genoese admiral Andrea Doria as Neptune, by Agnolo Bronzino.

Neptune (Latin: Neptūnus) is the god of the sea in Roman mythology. He is most identifiable by the trident, with which he is almost always depicted. Like many of the figures of Roman mythology, Neptune was appropriated from the Greek tradition, and so he is analogous but not identical to Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. The Roman conception of Neptune was inspired just as much if not more so by the Etruscan god Nethuns.

Origins

The Roman conception of Neptune owed a great deal to the Etruscan god Nethuns, who held jurisdiction over wells and later on all bodies of water. Originally Neptune was an Italic god paired with Salacia, possibly the goddess of the salt water. At an early date (399 B.C.E.) he was identified with the Greek Poseidon, when the Sibylline books ordered a lectisternium in his honour (Livy v. 13).

Function

Neptune was originally a minor god in the Roman pantheon, responsible for fresh water and irrigation, in opposition to Oceanus, god of the enormous river which was believed in classical antiquity to circle the world. However, his status among the other gods was bolstered significantly once he came to be identified with the Greek Poseidon in 399 B.C.E. From this point on, Neptune held jurisdiction over the sea and all things related to it. Although in earlier times it was the god Fortunus who was thanked for naval victories, Neptune had supplanted him in this role by at least the 1st century B.C.E., when Sextus Pompeius dubbed himself "son of Neptune". Like Poseidon, Neptune was also worshipped by the Romans as a horse god, under the name Neptune Equester, patron of horse-racing.

Worship

His festival, Neptunalia, at which tents were made from the branches of trees, July 23.

He had two temples in Rome. The first, built in 25 B.C.E., stood near the Circus Flaminius, the Roman racetrack, and contained a famous sculpture of a marine group by Scopas. The second, the Basilica Neptuni, was built on the Campus Martius and dedicated by Agrippa in honour of the naval victory of Actium.

Legacy

The name of the god was given to the planet Neptune, eighth planet from the sun.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Lenardon, Robert J, et al. "A Companion to Classical Mythology" Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 978-0195147254
• Morford, Mark P. O. & Lenardon, Robert J. "Classical Mythology" Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0195153446
• Osborn, Kevin. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Classical Mythology" Alpha, 1998. ISBN 978-0028623856

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