Marine God Pontus' Coral Cleaning Rules Explained
Summary of Contents: Pontus in Mythology | Arrival and Appearance | Can't Say "No" to a Sea God Sometimes | Pontus on How Things Are | Don't Make Enemies of Sea Gods | Weirdest Thing I Ever Saw Underwater
Festival Day - 16 April
God Pontus in Mythology
God Pontus is listed in Hesiod's 'Who Created the World' bestseller Theogony among Gaea’s first creations, before even the Titans.
Poets of later times used the word 'Pontus' solely as the ocean water.
Pontus is among the principal gods of ocean management. Others include Poseidon and Oceanus.
God Pontus Mythological references
Goddesses, Gods and You
What kind of Heaven do you expect. Soft fluffy paradise of eternity, or oblivion of nothingness? Out-of-body survival expert Margo Williams discovered a surprisingly simple system of management and afterlife recycling.
There are many goddesses and gods in the community. Speaking their name aloud evidently sends a signal; creates a link to wherever they are at any given moment. If it works for you as it worked for Margo, and they respond, be respectful but be yourself. Honesty and thoughtfulness are appreciated.
Sacrifice nothing but your time. Most of them seemed approachable and appreciated being remembered.
The ancient temples that still can be found in some places, although mostly broken, are huge monumental structures; impressive sacred spaces, their scale designed to impress, to be worthy of divine visitation.
However, it is not the size and splendour of any sacred space but the sincerity of the person seeking contact.
"Pontus is the sea. Is that a God?" Nick Hammond asked out-of-body survivalist Margo Williams.
Pontus' Arrival and Appearance
"I don't know.
His lightshow arrival was spectacular. Phosphorescence flooded the air, shimmering and glittering like a tropical sea.
A huge figure appeared part faded into the light, easily twenty feet tall. The phosphorescence dimmed slightly as features filled in.
Hair, body, skin. Grey-white curly shoulder-length hair, sea-green curly beard. Rounded face, bulbous nose.
I sensed great age, old as the sea.
"I am the great sea god Pontus." White hair and wispy beard did not give the impression of feebleness due to age, quite the opposite. Tough-looking god.
Strong arms, muscular legs; feet huge. He wore a draped loincloth, naked from waist upward.
"In ancient times there was much feasting and drinking and honouring me and s........s were made." He stared hard down at me, turquoise eyes bright beneath bushy white eyebrows.
I took a step back.
Sometimes You Can't Say "No" to a Sea God
Movement quick as silverfish, Pontus seized clam-tight hold of my wrist, yanked me away.
Next moment, splash. Deep dark water, far out at sea.
A swordfish surfaced. Pontus fastened my hands tight with kelp fronds to its blade. Swordfish twice my size. Pontus gestured, in response the fish sped away.
I tried to get free, unable to steer. As it towed me I bashed into rocks around which the swordfish lithely navigated, until eventually the fish slowed to a stop outside the entrance of an underwater cave.
And what a sight it was.
Its gaping rocky hole was curiously and astonishingly draped with pink lace-like seaweed, hung like curtains either side.
Pontus Threw Me Back
Pontus had arrived ahead of me. Grinning he stood in the cave opening.
"You come as a symbolic sacrifice," he said.
The ocean floor around the cave was scattered with sea urchins of different colours and size. Mauves, oranges and pinks, like flowers.
Extraordinary to see.
"We the Gods of the seas need the help of mortals." He waved, the swordfish took it as a signal and powered away upending me and towing me upward back toward the surface.
A shadow of a big ship’s hull passed over us on the way up.
The fish delivered me to the surface, sliced through the binding and left me floating in the ship’s wake as Pontus surfaced beside me.
Sun hot on my face, it felt like the tropics.
Container ship steered on toward the horizon. A fishing trawler chugged by, its nets drying in the warm breeze. A motor launch crossed its wake, travelling in the opposite direction, fishing rods lined on deck.
Pontus On How Things Are
I trod water. Pontus held steady in the gentle swell, head and shoulders above the surface but his feet were not moving.
Three plastic bottles and a bag floated past, drifting in the current.
"We need the help of mortals to keep the seas pure. Yet mortals do not help us," he continued. "The oceans of the world are in a bad way. Mortals wonder why there are illnesses that were never heard of years ago."
He pointed into the distant direction of land.
"Chemicals come from rivers into the sea, or from ships." Pontus explained the consequence.
"The fish are contaminated. Mortals catch fish, then eat them, and suffer illnesses to do with the blood."
Two men threw buckets of rubbish overboard from the launch, some pieces sank but most floated. The water was now a mass of rubbish.
"I will sink that boat."
Don't Make a Sea God Your Enemy
The swordfish circled twice then sped away. A cruise liner crossed the horizon line toward us, its towering decks looked swollen and top-heavy.
Pontus gestured, unimpressed. "The poor have little to eat but the wealthy feast and spend money on luxury boats."
The enormous vessel looked like a city wedged into a ship.
"Now," he said turning to me. "I will show you something beautiful."
He pulled, we surged fast through the water just below surface then dived down deep. A structure rose from the ocean floor, the perfect shape of a pyramid, entirely made of coral. Blues and pinks and white, twelve feet or more tall.
Some short distance away was a large rock covered in cranberry-coloured seaweed identical to the colour in my home hallway.
"What did I tell you?"
Nearby lay a large fan-shaped shell of pale pink, its edges glistened silver.
The ocean floor teemed with colourful fish. Sunlight illuminated colours in spectacular effect. My favourites were pink corals shaped like clusters of flowers on tiny stalks.
Other sights were not so pretty, though probably gave him satisfaction.
In shark-infested waters where man-eaters gathered rose an underwater rock. On its flattened top rested two grey white human s....s.
One upright, full set of teeth. The other close on its side; no flesh left. Both still wore an expression of surprise, so it looked to me.
Those in Peril on the Sea and in the Air
Little grey fish swam in and out of empty sockets and open mouths; round and round, from one to the other.
Macabre yet oddly beautiful to watch the playful fish.
"Those belonged to men who fished from a boat," Pontus explained. "They fell overboard. Wicked creatures, but they are more useful now than they were when alive."
Part-buried in the seabed sand beyond a ridge, lay a small open-topped aircraft.
A loss from long ago. One wing lay broken off nearby. The remains of two people still inside, just bones. Scraps of clothing flapped in the currents caused by playful fish.
One of the bodies’ bony fingers held a rosary, the crucifix had broken away and lay on a tiny rock ledge below.
Pontus said nothing of their accident or who they were as we headed back up to the surface.
The sky seemed so high above us, the ocean floor deep below my feet. Jet aircraft trails scarred the wide blue, too high for an ocean God to reach, I assumed.
But those at lower altitude, or in a boat on sea level were vulnerable.
A lone man fishing from a rowing boat in distant sight of land, the water around the boat teemed with fish. The fisherman’s rod bowed; excitedly he reeled in, thinking he had a catch.
Heaved and pulled unaware Pontus held the end of his line.
When he let go, the fisherman overbalanced and cart-wheeled backward into the water. Shark fin appeared.
Pontus offered a short obituary during his passing.
"Do not feel sorry for him," he said. "The man caught many hundreds of fish, he sold them all and let his three children starve." Pontus didn’t explain to me how he knew so much about the fisherman’s daily life.
Terrifying to witness, that was.
But not the strangest sight Pontus shared with me during all our time together.
Weirdest Thing I Ever Saw Underwater
It was a ghost on an oil-coated coral reef.
Some outcrops looked clear but other areas were badly affected, coated in black sticky tar. Pontus pointed to something feeding on the coral.
At first glance I thought it a fish. On closer inspection I saw it was human, a man.
Goo-slicked black and raw he didn't look well. He literally was licking the tarry oil from the coral.
Eyes crazed. I never saw such expression of man-in-pain excruciation outside the Underworld.
Pontus explained the situation. "This soul deliberately cleaned out the tanks of his ship. He died a natural death, the great Keres sent him to me. He has to clean the coral until it is perfect again."
Ghost captain had a long penance, I guessed.
"I commend you for your dedication." Pontus turned shaggy head to me. "You are taken by many gods and goddesses to witness and take part in things. Some not always pleasant."
The old shaggy sea god grinned. "I thank you for not shirking these duties." He gestured. "Now you may return. I, Pontus give you my blessings. I give you the gift of wisdom, of making the right choice, when choices have to be made."
Pontus tilted his head as if listening to something distant.
"At present mortals are in dispute over fishing and while they are doing this and fighting amongst themselves they are not fishing."
He laughed, heartily. "Long may they argue."
Thank you for your company on this short introduction to god Pontus. If you would like to know more about Margo Williams' experiences and suggestions for how to survive in the hereafter read this book. Now available from Amazon.
