(in Lat. Neptunus or Neptunius, in Gr. Poseidon), the god of the sea, was the son of Kronos and Rhea, and the brother of Jupiter and Juno. The etymology of the Greek as well as of the Latin form of his name is very obscure and doubtful. The ancient Dorians wrote the word Potedian, in which some scholars find the same root as in Potos and Potamos, and the verb pino. Nerubuddah Cicero derives the Latin name of the deity from the Greek Νερος, the Latin nato; Varro, with still less show of probability, from νεύω or νεύων, on the ground that the god covers or surrounds the earth with his waters. The most feasible explanation seems to be that which connects the name Neptunus with the root νηπ, as found in the Greek νηπτος. When the dominions of Kronos were divided among his sons, the sea fell to Neptune as his share. He was therefore worshipped with peculiar solemnity by all maritime nations; from the earliest ages by the adventurous Ionians, and at a later period by the Dorian Greeks. His favourite abode was said to be a splendid submarine palace at Ægina. Among the principal seats of his worship may be mentioned Cyrene, Ægina, Corinth, and Trozen, whence it was transferred to the Italian peninsula, first to Sybaris, and afterwards to Posidonia or Preium. The Isthmian games, held in his honour at Corinth, ranked among the four national festivals of the Greeks. (See Isthmia.) Neptune plays an important part in some of the ancient myths. He helped Apollo in building the walls of Troy for Laomedon. In his contest with Minerva for the honour of giving name to the city of Athens, he produced the horse. On this account he was regarded both by Romans and Greeks as a kind of equestrian as well as marine deity. The Romans had horse-races in the circus during his festival, when all other horses were crowned with wreaths and allowed a short respite from labour. The animals most commonly sacrificed in his honour were bulls, rams, and boars. Besides his favourite Amphitrite, by whom he had his son Triton, Neptune had two other wives, Salacia and Venilia. His statues represent him as a heavy and powerful figure, with tangled hair, and inferior in dignity of expression to his brother Jove. In his right hand he holds the trident, and with his left guides the horses yoked to the shell which serves him for a car. A long train of tritons and sea-nymphs follows in his wake.