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Neptune
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Neptune holding his trident, Classical sculpture; in the Lateran Museum, Rome.
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Latin:
Neptunus
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Neptune holding his trident, Classical sculpture; in the Lateran Museum, Rome.
Neptune holding his trident, Classical sculpture; in the Lateran Museum, Rome.

Neptune

Roman god
Also known as: Neptunus
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History

Neptune, in Roman religion, originally the god of fresh water; by 399 bce he was identified with the Greek Poseidon and thus became a deity of the sea. His female counterpart, Salacia, was perhaps originally a goddess of leaping springwater, subsequently equated with the Greek Amphitrite.

Neptuneā€™s festival (Neptunalia) took place in the heat of the summer (July 23), when water was scarcest; thus, its purpose was probably the propitiation of the freshwater deity. Neptune had a temple in the Circus Flaminius at Rome; one of its features was a sculptured group of marine deities headed by Poseidon and Thetis. In art Neptune appears as the Greek Poseidon, whose attributes are the trident and the dolphin.