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Water god in an ancient Roman mosaic. Zeugma Mosaic Museum, Gaziantep, Turkey. A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water.Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important.
In Greek mythology, Proteus (/ ˈ p r oʊ t i ə s, ˈ p r oʊ t. j uː s / PROH-tee-əs, PROHT-yooss; [1] Ancient Greek: Πρωτεύς, romanized: Prōteús) is an early prophetic sea god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" (hálios gérôn). [2]
With the sea goddess Thalassa (whose own name simply means "sea" but is derived from a Pre-Greek root), he fathered all sea life. [ 2 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] In a Roman sculpture of the 2nd century AD, Pontus, rising from seaweed, grasps a rudder with his right hand and leans on the prow of a ship.
The primacy of water gods is reminiscent of, and may even have been influenced by, ancient Near Eastern mythology - where Tiamat (salt water) and Apsu (fresh water) are the first gods of the Enuma Elish, and where the Spirit of God is said to have "hovered over the waters" in Genesis. Pontus is the primordial deity of the sea.
The river gods were depicted in one of three forms: a man-headed bull, a bull-headed man with the body of a serpent-like fish from the waist down, or as a reclining man with an arm resting upon an amphora jug pouring water. [citation needed] Notable river gods include:
In Sumerian mythology, there was an image of the original sea abyss – Apsu, on the site of which the most active of the gods Enki, representing the earth, fresh water and agriculture on irrigated lands, made his home. [4] In the beginning, the entire space of the world was filled with an ocean that had neither beginning nor end.
Besides Ceto, Gaia (Earth) and Pontus had four other offspring, Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys and Eurybia. [2] Hesiod's Theogony lists the children of Ceto and Phorcys as the two Graiae: Pemphredo and Enyo, and the three Gorgons: Sthenno, Euryale, and Medusa, [3] with their last offspring being an unnamed serpent (later called Ladon, by Apollonius of Rhodes) who guards the golden apples. [4]
Shed – A god believed to save people from danger and misfortune [129] Shehbui – God of the south winds [130] Shepsy – Local sun god in Hermopolis [131] Shezmu – A god of wine, blood, and oil presses who also slaughters condemned souls [132] Sia – Personification of perception [133] Sopdu – A god of the sky and of Egypt's eastern ...