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Pontus (mythology)




In Greek Mythology , Pontus (or '''Pontos''', "sea") was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, son of Gaia and Aether , the Earth and the Air. Hesiod ('' Theogony '', line 116) says that Gaia brought forth Pontos out of herself, without coupling. For Hesiod, Pontos seems little more than a personification of Sea.

With Gaia, he was the father of the Old Man of the Sea, Nereus and Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of the Sea), of the Sea's dangerous aspects, Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto , and of the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia . With Thalassa — whose own name simply means "sea" but in a pre-Greek root— he was the father of the Telchines .

Compare the sea-Titan Oceanus , who was more vividly realized than Pontus among the Hellenes.