Pontus the Primordial God of the Sea

Pontos (Pontus) was the primordial god (protogenos) of the sea. He was the sea itself, not merely its resident deity, who was born from earth at the dawn of creation.

Pontos and Gaia (Gaea, the Earth) were parents of the ancient deities known as the Old Men of the Sea. By Thalassa, his watery female counterpart, he was the father of fish and other sea creatures. Poseidon, king of the sea, wed Pontos' eldest granddaughter Amphitrite.

In Greco-Roman mosaics Pontos is depicted as a giant head with a watery-gray beard and crab-claw horns rising from the sea. However, in most mosaic art, Okeanos (Oceanus) supercedes him as the sea personified.