6. Glaucus.—Among the inferior sea-deities, Glaucus deserves mention as playing a part in the story of the Argonauts. He was really only a local god of the Anthedonians in Bœotia, and his worship was not extended to other places in Greece. But though he had no splendid temples, he stood in very high estimation among the lower classes of sailors and fishermen; indeed we find universally that the common people, in all their cares, turned rather to the inferior deities, whom they supposed to stand closer to them, than to the higher and more important gods. According to the story, Glaucus was originally a fisherman of Anthedon, who attained in a wonderful manner the rank of a god. One day, after having caught some fish, he laid them half dead on the turf close by. He was astonished to see, however, that on coming in contact with a certain herb, which was unknown to him, they were restored to life and sprang back into the sea. He himself now ate of this wonderful herb, and immediately felt himself penetrated by so wondrous a sensation of bliss and animation that, in his excitement, he too sprang into the sea. Oceanus and Thetis hereupon cleansed him from all his human impurities, and gave him a place among the sea-gods. He was venerated on many of the islands and coasts of Greece as a friendly deity, ever ready to assist the shipwrecked sailor or the castaway.
In art he is represented as a Triton, rough and shaggy in appearance, his body covered with mussels or sea-weed. His hair and beard show that luxuriance which characterises sea-gods.
7. Ino Leucothea, and Melicertes.—Like Glaucus, Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, attained at once immortality and divine rank by a leap into the sea. She was a sister of Semele, the mother of Dionysus, and the wife of Athamas, king of Orchomenus. It was she who, after the unhappy death of Semele, took charge of the infant Dionysus. Hera, however, avenged herself by driving Athamas mad, whereupon he dashed Learchus, his eldest son by Ino, against a rock. He was about to inflict the same fate on Melicertes, his second son, when in frantic haste the unhappy mother sought to save her child by flight. Athamas, however, pursued her as far as the Isthmus, when Ino, seeing no hope of escape, cast herself from the rock Moluris into the sea. Here she was kindly received by the Nereids, who converted both her and her son into sea-deities. She henceforth bore the name of Leucothea, and her son that of Palæmon. They were both regarded as benevolent deities of the stormy sea, who came to the assistance of those who were shipwrecked or in other peril. They appear in this guise in the Odyssey, where Odysseus, who saw only certain death before him, is represented as having been saved by a scarf thrown to him by Leucothea.
8. The Sirens.—The Sirens must also be reckoned among the sea-deities. They are best known from the story how Odysseus succeeded in passing them with his companions without being seduced by their song. He had the prudence to stop the ears of his companions with wax, and to have himself bound to the mast. The Sirens were regarded as the daughters either of the river-god Achelous by one of the nymphs, or of Phorcys and Ceto. Only two Sirens are mentioned in Homer, but three or four were recognised in later times and introduced into various legends, such as that of the Argonauts, or the Sicilian story of the rape of Persephone. Demeter is said to have changed their bodies into those of birds, because they refused to go to the help of their companion, Persephone, when she was carried off by the god of the lower world.
In art they are represented, like the Harpies, as young women with the wings and feet of birds. Sometimes they appear altogether like birds, only with human faces; at other times with the arms and bodies of women, in which case they generally hold instruments of music in their hands. As their songs were death to those who were seduced by them, they are often depicted on tombs as spirits of death.
9. The Race of Oceanus.—Lastly, we must enumerate among the water-deities the numerous descendants of Oceanus, viz., the Oceanids, and also the rivers that are spread over the earth. The latter were believed to have their common source in the ocean encircling the earth, and thence to flow beneath the ground until they reached the surface in springs.
Oceanus himself appears in the myths which treat of the genealogy of the gods as the eldest son of Uranus and Gæa, and therefore, like his wife Tethys, a Titan. As he did not take part in the rebellion of the other Titans against the dominion of Zeus, he did not share their dreadful fate, but was allowed to remain in undisturbed enjoyment of his ancient domain. He was supposed to dwell on the most western shores of the earth, which he never left even to attend the assemblies of the gods.
On account of their great importance to the fertility of the soil, the river-gods enjoyed a great reputation among the Greeks, although their worship was entirely of a local nature. Only Achelous, the greatest of all the Greek rivers, appears to have enjoyed general veneration. The river-gods were believed to dwell either in the depths of the rivers themselves, or in rocky grottoes near their sources. They were depicted either as delicate youths, or as men in their prime, or as old men, according to the magnitude of the river. They all possess a conformity with the nature of their element, viz., that power of transformation which we discover in the other sea-deities. They also appear, like other water-spirits, to possess the gift of prophecy.
Among the Romans all flowing waters were held sacred. Fontus, the son of Janus, was especially esteemed as the god of springs and fountains in general; but, as among the Greeks, each river had its special deity. The most important of these was Tiberinus. The springs were popularly supposed to be inhabited by nymphs gifted with the powers of prophecy and magic, who sometimes honoured mortals with their favours, as Egeria did King Numa.
In art the river-gods were commonly represented in the guise of those animals whose forms they were most in the habit of assuming. They thus appear as serpents, bulls, or even as men with bulls’ heads. They were also portrayed, however, in purely human guise, with the exception of having small horns on either side of the head. Their attributes consist of urns and horns of plenty, symbols of the blessings that proceed from them.