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In Greek mythology, Pontus (Ancient Greek: Πόντος, lit. ‘Sea‘) is the personification of the sea. In Hesiod‘s Theogony (8th or 7th century BC), he is the offspring of Gaia (the Earth), who produces him alone. With Gaia, he becomes the progenitor of a family comprising mostly marine beings and monsters; the pair’s children are Nereus, Phorcys, Ceto, Thaumas, and Eurybia. In a fragment of the lost Titanomachy (late 7th century BC or afterwards), Pontus and Gaia are described as the parents of Aigaion. The 2nd-century AD Fabulae assigns Pontus a consort named Mare (‘The sea‘), and places him as the son of Gaia and Aether (the Upper Sky).

Pontus is depicted on a Roman mosaic from Mérida, Spain, dating to around the late 2nd century AD, on which only fragments of his body survive. A 2nd-century AD marble statue shows him as a patron deity of Tomis (modern-day Constanța, Romania), alongside the Roman goddess Fortuna.

In Ancient Greek, the word póntos (πόντος) means ‘sea‘, and derives from the Proto-Indo-European *pont-eh₁-, *pn̥t-h₁, meaning ‘path‘.^[2] The name was also sometimes used to refer to the Black Sea.^[3]

Pontus is the Greek personification of the sea.^[4] He does not appear in any mythological stories, and in literature is attested solely in a genealogical context.^[5] In the Theogony of the poet Hesiod, who dates to the 8th or 7th century BC,^[6] Pontus is the offspring of Gaia (the personification of the Earth), produced without the aid of a father.^[7] With Gaia, he becomes the progenitor of a family that includes mostly beings connected with the sea and various monsters;^[8] the latter group are made descendants of Pontus owing to their terrible nature, which requires that they be made genealogically distant from the main divine family of the Olympians.^[9] The offspring of Pontus and Gaia are:^[10] Nereus and Phorcys, both of whom are sea gods; Ceto, a sea monster; and Eurybia and Thaumas.^[11] According to Martin Litchfield West, it appears that all of these children dwell in the sea.^[12] They are interpreted by Francisco Díez de Velasco as representing the two dimensions of the sea which sailors would have experienced early on in the archaic period (c. 800–480 BC): Nereus stands for the “favourable” sea, and Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia for that which is “monstrous”.^[13]

The Titanomachy was a lost epic poem composed in the late 7th century BC or afterwards, sometimes attributed in antiquity to the Corinthian poet Eumelus.^[14] A fragment of the poem attested that it described Pontus and Gaia as the parents of Aigaion, who was said to have battled alongside the Titans in the Titanomachy (the war between the Titans and the Olympians, the younger generation of gods).^[15]

The Bibliotheca of Apollodorus, a mythological handbook probably composed in the 1st or 2nd century AD,^[16] provides Pontus with, by Gaia, the same brood of five children as the Theogony.^[17] In the Fabulae, a Latin mythological handbook attributed to Hyginus and probably dating to around the 2nd century AD,^[18] Pontus is said to be the offspring of Gaia and Aether (the personification of the Upper Sky).^[19] The poem also names his consort as Mare (‘The sea‘);^[20] according to Simon Hornblower, this figure is Thalassa, or “the sea under yet other names”.^[21] With Mare, he is the progenitor of all fish.^[22] According to the 12th-century AD Byzantine poet John Tzetzes, some ancient authors described the Telchines as the offspring of Pontus and Gaia.^[23]

Alongside various other cosmogonic figures, Pontus is depicted on a Roman polychrome mosaic from Mérida, Spain, dating to around the latter half of the 2nd century or the early 3rd century AD.^[24] He is located on the work’s most damaged section, and only certain parts of the body survive, including his feet (which are bare), one of his legs, and one hand.^[25] He is accompanied by an inscription of his name, and is situated in the lowest area of the mosaic, which is also inhabited by Oceanus and other marine figures.^[26] According to Díez de Velasco, in this mosaic Pontus represents the “navigable sea”; he is wholly favourable, the sea “tamed by the power of Rome”.^[25]

A Roman marble statue dating to the 2nd century AD depicts Pontus and the goddess Fortuna as the patron gods of the city of Tomis (modern-day Constanța, Romania), along the west coast of the Black Sea.^[1] He is portrayed as much smaller than Fortuna, and is located beside her legs.^[27] According to Zdravko Dimitrov, the statue’s stonemasonry displays Anatolian influence.^[1]

• List of water deities
• Pontus (region)

• Beekes, Robert S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Leiden, Brill, 2009. ISBN 9789004174184. Internet Archive.
• Díez de Velasco, Francisco, “Pontos”, in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). VII.1: Oidipous – Theseus, pp. 436–437, Zurich and Munich, Artemis Verlag, 1994. ISBN 3760887511. Internet Archive.
• Dimitrov, Zdravko, “Anatolian Stonemasons and the West Pontic Region: Imported Models and Techniques in the Architectural Decorations of the Early Principate”, in The Greeks and Romans in the Black Sea and the Importance of the Pontic Region for the Graeco-Roman World (7th century BC–5th century AD): 20 Years On (1997–2017), pp. 290–294, edited by Gocha R. Tsetskhladze, Alexandru Avram, and James Hargrave, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2021. ISBN 9781789697582.
• Fowler, Robert L., Early Greek Mythography: Volume 2: Commentary, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 9780198147411. doi:10.1093/actrade/9780198147411.book.1.
• Frazer, James George, Apollodorus. The Library, Volume I: Books 1–3.9, Loeb Classical Library No. 121, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1921. ISBN 9780674991354. Loeb Classical Library. Perseus Digital Library.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. ISBN 080184410X.
• García Sandoval, Eugenio, “El mosaico cosmogónico de Mérida”, in Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueología, Vol. 34, pp. 9–29, 1969. ISSN 0210-9573.
• Glare, P. G. W., Oxford Latin Dictionary, London, Oxford University Press, 1968. Internet Archive.
• Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Malden, Oxford, and Carlton, Blackwell Publishing, 1986. ISBN 0631201025. Internet Archive.
• Hard, Robin (2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose’s “Handbook of Greek Mythology”, London and New York, Routledge, 2004. ISBN 020344633X. doi:10.4324/9780203446331.
• Hornblower, Simon, “Pontus”, in Oxford Classical Dictionary, edited by Tim Whitmarsh, New York, Oxford University Press, 2016. ISBN 9780199381135.
• Marshall, Peter K., Hyginus: Fabulae, Bibliotheca Teubneriana, Munich and Leipzig, K. G. Saur Verlag, 2002 (2nd edition). ISBN 3598712375. doi:10.1515/9783110975512.
• Matranga, Pietro, Anecdota Graeca e mss. bibliothecis Vaticana, Angelica, Barberiniana, Vallicelliana, Medicea, Vindobonensis: Pars Secunda, Rome, Typis C. A. Bertinelli, 1850. Internet Archive.
• Most, Glenn W., Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days, Testimonia, Loeb Classical Library No. 57, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2018. ISBN 9780674997202. Loeb Classical Library.
• Montanari, Franco, The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, edited by Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden, Brill, 2015. ISBN 9789004193185.
• Schachter, Albert, “Hesiod”, in Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, pp. 356–357, edited by Nigel Wilson, New York and Abingdon, Routledge, 2006. ISBN 9780415973342.
• Smith, Scott R., and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Apollodorus’ Library and Hyginus’ Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Indianapolis and Cambridge, Hackett Publishing, 2007. ISBN 9780872208216. Internet Archive.
• Tran, Tam Tinh, “Ouranos”, in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). VII.1: Oidipous – Theseus, pp. 132–136, Zurich and Munich, Artemis Verlag, 1994. ISBN 3760887511. Internet Archive.
• Tripp, Edward, Crowell’s Handbook of Classical Mythology, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1970. ISBN 069022608X. Internet Archive.
• Wendel, Carl, Scholia in Apollonium Rhodium vetera, Hildesheim, Weidmann, 1999. ISBN 3615400771.
• West, M. L. (1966), Hesiod: Theogony, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1966. ISBN 0198141696.
• West, M. L. (2002), “‘Eumelos’: A Corinthian Epic Cycle?”, in The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 122, pp. 109–133, 2002. JSTOR 3246207.
• West, M. L. (2003), Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC, Loeb Classical Library No. 497, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN 9780674996052. Harvard University Press.