« H O M E / ORION MUSEUM
Mythology / Poseidon Gallery
Poseidon, the god with blue hair ...
as depicted by Homer
Poseidon, for the Romans Neptune, brother of Jupiter, the “god with blue hair” as depicted by Homer, is the powerful Lord of the Sea, who induces storms and seastorms, earthquakes and seaquakes. This formidable Olympian god, a progenitor of giants and cyclops, did not easily forget wrongs committed by mortals, letting loose all his rage against Ulysses, after the blinding of his son Polyphemus, forcing him to roam all over the Mediterranean before returning to Ithaca. He is often depicted holding a trident, the weapon used by tuna fishermen, driving a chariot drawn by horses with golden manes, riding majestically atop the waves surrounded by an entourage of Tritons, Nereids and dolphins. According to classical mythology Neptune’s home was the sea. Numerous myths originating from the sea and man’s close relationship with it refer to this god.
Worship of Poseidon was commonplace throughout the Hellenic world as well as in ancient Messina, a rich trading city and strategic military bulwark on the coast. The Strait of Messina area has always been a high risk seismic zone. According to Greek historian Strabo, the name of Reggio Calabria, known in ancient times as Rhegion, came from the “fracture” separating Sicily from the mainland. According to tradition, it was Neptune who split the two apart with his trident. This god was particularly revered in this area because he protected against earthquakes. His son Orion and the giants were the mythical founders of Messina with its sickle-shaped port and it seems that the Peloritani mountains were once called the Neptune mountains.
Some mythological characters survive because people continue to see images of them. In this regard, Calogero Di Mino’s study of popular psychology among Sicilian seafarers posits that Neptune has remained “popular” in Messina up to the present thanks to the 16th century fountain by Montorsoli dedicated to him.
It seems that, in ancient times, at least three temples on the Strait were dedicated to Neptune: one was located on the site of the present-day church of Dinnammare, atop the Peloritani mountains; a second one was situated near Capo Peloro and a third was to be found in the urban area of early Messina, guarding the entrance to the port. The mediaeval Church of the Santissima Annunziata dei Catalani, dating from Byzantine times with Arab-Norman architectural influence (12th-13th century), was built on top of the remains of the pre-existing pagan temple.
The Temples of Neptune overlooking the Strait
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A monument to the god of the sea...
by the sculptor Giovanni Angelo da Montorsoli
Worship of Neptune was well established in Graeco-Roman Messina, where the god of the sea had various temples dedicated to him on the Strait. The attachment of Messina to this ancient tradition was confirmed in 1557, when the Senate of the city commissioned the sculptor Giovanni Angelo da Montorsoli to create the beautiful fountain bearing the god’s name.
The monument symbolises the turbulent waters of the Strait with the monsters Scylla and Charybdis chained up at the feet of god of the sea, who is calming the waves. Today, the Neptune fountain stands in the centre of Piazza dell’Unità, in front of the Prefecture building, in a magnificent setting looking out onto the Strait. Before the 1908 earthquake, however, the fountain was situated near the port, against the splendid background of the Palazzata buildings. The massive statue of Neptune, about four metres high, had its back to the sea, whereas today it faces it. During the anti-Bourbon revolt of 1848, the fountain was damaged by shelling.
The monument withstood the earthquakes of 1783 and 1908 and was moved to its present site in 1934, following the rebuilding of the city’s seafront. The original statue was replaced by a true copy by Gregorio Zappalà and is now housed in the Regional Museum in Messina, where restoration work has been carried out to return it to its ancient splendour.
The Fountain of Neptune in Messina
Dolphins and the souls of the drowned...
Dolphins, animals symbolic of rescue
Dolphins are the animals most frequently used as symbols for rescue and it is no accident that they are associated with Poseidon. The myth of Arion, in which he is rescued at sea by dolphins thanks to his song, pictures these animals as a positive symbol of the sea. Classical mythology is full of examples of dolphins rushing to the aid of men in trouble at sea. Ulysses had the image of a dolphin on his shield because his son Telemachus, when still a child, had been saved at sea by the one of these small intelligent creatures. Delphi, the famous sanctuary and Oracle of Apollo, was thus named in their honour. The city of Taranto was founded by Phalantus, who rode there on the back of a dolphin. Enalus and Fineid were both saved by dolphins, as was Icadius, Iapyges’ Cretan brother.
Bearers of the souls of the drowned
The god of wine, Dionysius, the Romans’ equivalent to Bacchus, who was captured by pirates in the Tyrrhenian, turned them into dolphins so they would come to the aid of those who were shipwrecked. In the Strait of Messina, for example, and all over the lower Tyrrhenian Sea, fishermen’s traditional fear of dolphins is due to their belief that they are the bearers of the souls of the drowned.
Numismatic symbol in Greek-era Messina
In popular Christian belief dolphins have not lost their strong symbolic value; indeed, it is said that two dolphins carried the statue of Our Lady from the sea up to the summit of the Peloritani mountains, now known as Dinnammare, on the same site where a temple dedicated to Neptune may have once stood. Thus, dolphins have clearly been one of the most frequent iconographic symbols since ancient times, and they can often be seen in local sculptures and mosaics, such as in the Roman villa of San Biagio near Castroreale, and on coins from Messina in Greek times.
The unique hunting technique of dolphins in the Strait
When required, dolphins can be astute and sometimes ruthless predators, cooperating as a group with a rigid system of alliances, and are capable of developing surprisingly complex and effective hunting strategies in order to feed themselves. The Greek scholar Aelianus, in the 2nd-3rd century AD, warned in a treatise that dolphins tore fishing nets to steal fish and were able to interfere with the capture of tuna. According to seafarers’ traditions, therefore, dolphins can become “fera maliditta” (cursed dolphin) bringing bad luck, playing a central role in superstitions and sometimes possessing evil or supernatural powers. In the 18th century, Antonio Minasi, a Dominican padre from Scylla and Professor of Botany at the Sapienza University in Rome, observed and recorded the unique phenomenon of active beaching. Dolphins make well-coordinated attacks on fish, making waves and harrying the fish towards the shoreline. When their prey has nowhere else to go, being hemmed in near the beach, they are devoured by dolphins that even chase them onto the beach itself. The Calabrian botanist had illustrations of the dolphins’ spectacular hunting method made by artists in a beautiful collection of engravings dedicated to the environmental microcosm and marine life of the Strait of Messina. The illustrations, with detailed captions by Minasi, include one that depicts the hunting dolphins chasing and attacking shoals of tuna. The tuna defend themselves from the dolphins by forming a triangle, but the dolphins «from three directions, attack them in a semicircle, staying against the light, forcing them towards the shoreline». The dolphins’ tactic is successful, and the tuna are routed on the shore.
Dolphins as symbols of the sea
Dolphins attracted by music...
The myth of Arion
The Hymn to Poseidon...
Greatly I laud you among the Gods,
O Poseidon of the sea with your golden trident
you shake the earth, brimming with living water:
around you swimming with flippers
the dolphins dance in a circle:
squat, with their bristling necks,
agile, as if fleet of foot
jumping quickly like young dogs
racing, lovers of the Muses.
of the virgin Nereids born of Amphitrite,
who saved me shipwrecked in the open sea of Sicily,
carrying me on your bent backs
from the land of Lydia to the shores of Tenaro,
cutting through the waves of adverse currents
through the difficult strait, when wily men, from a hollow ship
sailing on tumultuous waves,
threw me into the purple sea.
Salvatore Quasimodo
"Lirici greci" (Mondadori, Milano, 1945)
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