Pontus (mythology) in the context of "Greek primordial deities"

Early Greek cosmology refers to beliefs about the origins, development, and structure of the universe in Ancient Greece that existed before the development of Ancient Greek astronomy. The basic elements of this early cosmology included a flat earth, heaven, a cosmic ocean, the afterworld (Hades), and the netherworld (Tartarus). The first three were represented by the gods Gaia, Uranus, and Oceanus (or sometimes Pontus). Ancient Greek cosmology was related to ancient Near Eastern cosmology, and was ultimately replaced by a more systematic and demythologized approach found in ancient Greek astronomy. Its main sources are the poetry of Homer (the Iliad and the Odyssey), Hesiod (the Theogony and the Works and Days), and surviving fragments from Mimnermus.

Beginning in the 5th century BC, elements of the traditional Greek cosmos began to be modified and challenged. One of the earliest of these challenges came from the emergence of the view that the cosmos as a whole was spherical (advocated by Xenophanes, Parmenides, Empedocles, and others). The rotation of the spherical cosmos was said to explain the visible rotation of the stars (an idea called "vortex"). Soon, a spherical model of the earth itself was proposed, which gradually gained acceptance, although the flat earth view never entirely disappeared during either classical antiquity or late antiquity, continuing to receive support from geographers and others like Ctesias, Ephorus, Strabo, Tacitus, and the Epicureans. The last Greek advocate of the traditional cosmology was Cosmas Indicopleustes.

In Greek mythology, Phorcys or Phorcus (/ˈfɔːrsɪs/; Ancient Greek: Φόρκυς) is a primordial sea god, generally cited (first in Hesiod) as the son of Pontus and Gaia (Earth). Classical scholar Karl Kerenyi conflated Phorcys with the similar sea gods Nereus and Proteus. His wife was Ceto, and he is most notable in myth for fathering by Ceto a host of monstrous children. In extant Hellenistic-Roman mosaics, Phorcys was depicted as a fish-tailed merman with crab-claw legs and red, spiky skin.

According to Servius, commentator on the Aeneid, who reports a very ancient version already reflected in Varro, distinct from the Greek vulgate: Phorcos was once king of Sardinia and Corsica; annihilated in a naval battle in the Tyrrhenian Sea, and then shot down by King Atlas with a large part of his army, his companions imagined him transformed into a marine deity, perhaps a monster, half man and half sea ram.

Ceto (/ˈsiːtoʊ/; Ancient Greek: Κητώ, romanized: Kētṓ, lit. 'sea monster') is a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology, the daughter of Pontus and his mother, Gaia. As a mythological figure, she is considered to be one of the most ancient deities, and bore a host of monstrous children fathered by Phorcys, another child of Gaia and Pontus. The small Solar System body 65489 Ceto was named after her, and its satellite after Phorcys.

Ceto was also variously called Crataeis (Κράταιις, Krataiis, from κραταιίς "mighty") and Trienus (Τρίενος, Trienos, from τρίενος "within three years"), and was occasionally conflated by scholars with the goddess Hecate (for whom Crataeis and Trienus are also epithets).

In Greek mythology, the Old Man of the Sea (Ancient Greek: ἅλιος γέρων, romanized: hálios gérōn; Greek: Γέροντας της Θάλασσας, romanized: Yérondas tis Thálassas) was a figure who could be identified as any of several water-gods, generally Nereus or Proteus, but also Triton, Pontus, Phorcys or Glaucus. He is the father of Thetis (the mother of Achilles).

In Greek mythology, Nereus (/ˈnɪəriəs/ NEER-ee-əs; Ancient Greek: Νηρεύς, romanized: Nēreús) was the eldest son of Pontus (the Sea) and Gaia (the Earth), with Pontus himself being a son of Gaia. Nereus and Doris became the parents of 50 daughters (the Nereids) and a son (Nerites), with whom Nereus lived in the Aegean Sea.

In Greek mythology, Gaia (/ˈɡeɪə, ˈɡaɪə/; Ancient Greek: Γαῖα, romanized: Gaîa, a poetic form of Γῆ (Gê), meaning 'land' or 'earth'), also spelled Gaea (/ˈdʒiːə/), is the personification of Earth. She is the mother of Uranus (Sky), with whom she conceived the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods), the Cyclopes, and the Giants, as well as of Pontus (Sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.

In Greek mythology, Eurybia (/jʊəˈrɪbiə/; Ancient Greek: Εὐρυβία, Εὐρυβίη, meaning "wide-force"), described as "[having] a heart of flint within her", was the daughter of Pontus and Gaia, consort to the Titan Crius, and mother of Astraeus, Perses, and Pallas. An older, relatively minor deity, her role in most mythology is as the ancestor of other gods, and she often plays no role in the mythology.