His symbol was the horse. "He was the first to train
and employ horses;" that is to say, his people first domesticated the
horse. This agrees with what Plato tells us of the importance attached
to the horse in Atlantis, and of the baths and race-courses provided for
him. He was worshipped in the island of Tenos "in the character of a
physician," showing that he represented an advanced civilization. He was
also master of an agricultural people; "the ram with the golden fleece
for which the Argonauts sailed was the offspring of Poseidon." He
carried in his hand a three-pronged symbol, the trident, doubtless an
emblem of the three continents that were embraced in the empire of
Atlantis. He founded many colonies along the shores of the
Mediterranean; "he helped to build the walls of Troy;" the tradition
thus tracing the Trojan civilization to an Atlantean source. He settled
Attica and founded Athens, named after his niece Athena, daughter of
Zeus, who had no mother, but had sprung from the head of Zeus, which
probably signified that her mother's name was not known--she was a
foundling. Athena caused the first olive-tree to grow on the Acropolis
of Athens, parent of all the olive-trees of Greece.
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