Neptune, Neptune's Fountain, Gdansk, Poland
N 54° 20.913 E 018° 39.196
34U E 347474 N 6024841
Neptune's Fountain - is a historic fountain in Gdansk constructed from 1606-1633.
Neptune was the god of fresh water and sea in Roman mythology.
Waymark Code: WMZF0H
Location: Pomorskie, Poland
Date Posted: 10/31/2018
Views: 13
Neptune (Latin: Neptunus [n?p'tu?n?s]) was the god of freshwater and the sea. in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto; the brothers presided over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Salacia was his wife.
The theology of Neptune may only be reconstructed to some degree, as since very early times he was identified with the Greek god Poseidon: his presence in the lectisternium of 399 BC is a testimony to the fact. Such an identification may well be grounded in the strict relationship between the Latin and Greek theologies of the two deities. It has been argued that Indo-European people, having no direct knowledge of the sea as they originated from inland areas, reused the theology of a deity originally either chthonic or wielding power over inland freshwaters as the god of the sea. This feature has been preserved particularly well in the case of Neptune who was definitely a god of springs, lakes and rivers before becoming also a god of the sea, as is testified by the numerous findings of inscriptions mentioning him in the proximity of such locations. Servius the grammarian also explicitly states Neptune is in charge of all the rivers, springs and waters. He also is the lord of horses because he worked with Minerva to make the chariot.
He may find a parallel in Irish god Nechtan, master of the well from which all the rivers of the world flow out and flow back to.
Poseidon on the other hand underwent the process of becoming the main god of the sea at a much earlier time, as is shown in the Iliad.
In the earlier times it was the god Portunus or Fortunus who was thanked for naval victories, but Neptune supplanted him in this role by at least the first century BC when Sextus Pompeius called himself "son of Neptune." For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water.
A Roman mosaic on a wall in the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, Herculaneum, Italy
Neptune was also considered the legendary progenitor god of a Latin stock, the Faliscans, who called themselves Neptunia proles. In this respect he was the equivalent of Mars, Janus, Saturn and even Jupiter among Latin tribes. Salacia would represent the virile force of Neptune.
Source: wikipedia
Associated Religion(s): Roman, Greek,
Statue Location: Central Wroclaw
Entrance Fee: 0
Artist: Flemish Piotr Husen.
Website: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the statue. A waymarker and/or GPSr is not required to be in the image but it doesn't hurt.