Hymn to Poseidon

Seven lines, and in the middle of them the clearest statement in the whole collection of how gods come by their departments.

Διχθά τοι, Ἐννοσίγαιε, θεοὶ τιμὴν ἐδάσαντο — in two parts, Earth-shaker, the gods apportioned your honour. Edasanto means "divided, distributed in shares". He is not so of himself or by nature: the other gods cut him a portion, and it turned out to consist of two pieces — "to be tamer of horses and saviour of ships".

The combination puzzled the Greeks themselves, and here it is explained in the only way mythology can explain anything: that is how it was divided up. A department is a decision, not an essence.

Πλώουσιν ἄρηγε — help those who sail. The hymn's only request, and it concerns the second half of his office.

A note on a name. Ἑλικῶνα in form is Helicon, the Boeotian mountain of the Muses, which has nothing to do with Poseidon. Aegae, however, is Achaean, and beside it stood Helike — Poseidon's greatest sanctuary in Achaea; most commentators therefore see Helike here. The card's Russian follows the form that stands in the text. Helike, incidentally, was swallowed by the sea after an earthquake in 373 BC — by the very god it worshipped.