Everything about Neptune Mythology totally explained
Neptune (
Latin:
Neptūnus) is the
god of water and the sea in
Roman mythology, a brother of
Jupiter and
Pluto.
He is analogous with but not identical to the god
Poseidon of
Greek mythology. The Roman conception of Neptune owed a great deal to the
Etruscan god Nethuns.
Originally he was an Italic god paired with
Salacia, possibly the goddess of the salt water. At an early date (399 BC) he was identified with
Poseidon, when the
Sibylline books ordered a
lectisternium in his honour (
Livy v. 13).
In earlier times it was the god
Portunes 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".
Neptune was associated as well with fresh water, as opposed to
Oceanus, god of the world-ocean.
Like Poseidon, Neptune was also
worshipped by the Romans as a god of horses, under the name
Neptune Equester,
patron of horse-racing.
Festivals
His festival,
Neptunalia, at which tents were made from the branches of bushes, took place on
July 23. He had two temples in Rome. The first, built in 25 BC, stood near the
Circus Flaminius, the Roman racetrack, and contained a famous sculpture of a marine group by
Scopas. The second, the Basilica Neptuni, was built on the
Campus Martius and dedicated by
Agrippa in honour of the naval
victory of Actium.
300 A.D. statue
The Department of Subaquatic Archaeological Research divers (headed by Michel L'Hour) discovered a first decade, 300 A.D., 5.9 foot
marble statue of Neptune, in the
Rhone River. The statue is one of 100
artifacts that the team excavated between September and October 2007.
References and notes
Further Information
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