Poseidon, as the god of the seas, held great power and significance for the ancient Greeks. He was a very popular god, and is consequently the subject of many myths. He appears in both the works of Homer and of Hesiod as the brother of Zeus, and therefore from the first generation of Olympians.

And just as Zeus ruled the sky and wielded the deadly thunderbolt, Poseidon controlled, from his sea-domain, the devastating force of the earthquake. This ability to summon earthquakes earned Poseidon the epithet of "Earth Shaker", a name that is fairly common in Greek poetry and literature.