Kitap 7
21.8
Various reasons could be plausibly assigned for the last of these surnames having been given to the god, but my own conjecture is that he got this name as the inventor of horsemanship. Homer, at any rate, when describing the chariot-race, puts into the mouth of Menelaus a challenge to swear an oath by this god:—Touch the horses, and swear by the earth-holder, earth-shaker,That thou didst not intentionally, through guile, obstruct my chariot.Hom. Il. 23.584-585
21.9
Pamphos also, who composed for the Athenians the most ancient of their hymns, says that Poseidon is—Giver of horses and of ships with sails set.Pamphos, work unknownSo it is from horsemanship that he has acquired his name, and not for any other reason.
21.10
In Patrae, not far from that of Poseidon, are sanctuaries of Aphrodite. One of the two images was drawn up by fishermen in a net a generation before my time. There are also quite near to the harbor two images of bronze, one of Ares and the other of Poseidon. The image of Aphrodite, whose precinct too is by the harbor, has its face, hands and feet of stone, while the rest of the figure is made of wood.
