Shownotes Transcript
Hey Everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today's video, we're going to dive into another versus, this time pitting Hades, the lord of the underworld, against Poseidon, the lord of the sea.In this head-to-head we're going to determine who would win based on several points of consideration - specifically, weapons, sphere of influence, raw power, and combat ability - to see which one would ultimately emerge victorious. To set the stage for this, we're going to do a quick overview of part of the Greek creation myth, as much of the information we'll need is incorporated in it. Here we go.Following the rule of the Primordials, Cronus, the youngest and boldest of the 12 first-generation titans, rose to power by castrating his father, Uranus, taking his place. After establishing himself as the king of the cosmos, Cronus learned from his parents that he was fated to be overthrown by one of his sons as he himself had overthrown his father, perpetuating the vicious cycle of son supplanting father. In an effort to forestall this eventuality, he swallowed his children as soon as they were born, imprisoning them inside himself. But his attempt to preempt his fate was thwarted when his consort, the titan goddess Rhea, proffered a stone swaddled in baby's wrappings in the place of her youngest son, Zeus, who was whisked away and raised in secret. When Zeus was grown, he made a triumphant return, freed his siblings from Cronus' belly, freed the cyclopes and the Hecatonchires, and then successfully led this motley alliance of gods and monsters in a 10 year war against the titans called the Titanomachy, which ended with the defeat of the titans and their subsequent imprisonment in Tartarus.Now, you might be wondering: why is this portion of the creation myth integral to a versus video that pits Hades against Poseidon to see which god would emerge victorious after an all out one-on-one battle. Well, it's crucial because this portion of the creation myth sets the stage for three of the most important factors in this comparison, namely, weapons, relative power level, and sphere of influence. The Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes - there were three of each - allied themselves with the gods after the gods traveled to the underworld, slayed the dragon Campe, and freed each trio. The Hecatonchires were indomitable behemoths. 50 arms hung from each shoulder, and 50 heads surmounted each of their bodies. They joined the gods on the battlefield, unleashing an onslaught of boulders that rained down on the Titans. The main contribution of the Cyclopes wasn't as warriors, but rather, as forge masters. They crafted three weapons, one for each of the brothers. They made Zeus' lightning bolts, Hades' cap of darkness, and Poseidon's trident. We're going to revisit these later in the video, looking at how they bolster each god's strength. After the war was over, Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon each drew lots to see which domain would be distributed to which brother. To Zeus went the skies, to Hades, the underworld, and to Poseidon, the sea. The fact that each of their domains were distributed by chance tells us that each of the brothers were all about on the same power level, at least that Hades and Poseidon were, as they all possessed the capacity to rule any of the three realms. Either Hades or Poseidon could just as easily have been appointed to the skies. However, despite this argument, we're going to exclude Zeus from it because he's consistently portrayed throughout Greek mythology as being more powerful than either of his brothers.Because Hades and Poseidon each had the same level of raw power - this fact extrapolated from them having the capacity to rule each other's domains - a battle between them, then, would be determined by the factors that differentiate them. These factors are domains, combat abilities, and weapons, and we're going to address each one, in that order.