Where Did The Sea Come From?

Long long ago, two brothers, Poseidon, the god of water, and Hades, the god of the underworld, were fighting for they had both fallen in love with the same woman, Thalassa. Poseidon had long wispy hair, and a very muscular and powerful presence, and Hades had black spiky hair, flaming eyes, and a very angry presence. Thalassa was a truly beautiful woman with long silky fair hair, sparkling emerald eyes, full lips and sharp cheekbones. Her fair hair was always tied back in a loose braid but her bangs always fell shyly down covering most of her face.

They first saw her when one day she was sitting with her feet dipped in a particularly large pool of water that had been caused by the storm from the previous day. Hades took one glance at her and instantly fell in love. His heart swelled at the sight of her beauty and he almost see the kindness wafting off of her. He started out of the Underworld to try and reach her but Poseidon got to her first. He could never forgive Poseidon for that one simple act of betrayal. Poseidon descended down from Olympus and stood before her smiling. She looked up at him and her emerald eyes locked with his crystal blue ones. Playfully, he flicked his wrist making the water splash her slightly. Her eyes widened, fear creeping across her face. How did he do that? How did he move the water without touching it? She started to inch slowly back to her original spot by the water, but her eyes watched his every move, still not sure whether or not to trust him. From that day on she and Poseidon became friends and grew closer and closer every day. This friendship lasted years until it turned into love.

Their love for each other was so strong that it felt like their hearts were wrenched out of their chests if they were apart for too long. After a few years, she became impregnated. This only made their love grow and Poseidon kept her protectively by side at all times for he knew his brother Hades was also deeply in love with her.

One day, there was a problem on Olympus that caused him to have to leave, he left her guarded by two of his soldiers. He had been gone for days, and Thalassa was craving a particular type of fruit that only grew in a small grotto that was thousands of miles away. She sent the soldiers to go and fetch some for her because she didn't think their was any real threat. She was wrong, as soon as Hades, who had been watching her, saw that she wasn't guarded, he sent Cerberus, his three headed dog, to kidnap her and bring her to him. He locked her away deep down in the Underworld, secluded from anyone else.

The guards returned to where they had left her only to find her missing. They quickly contacted Poseidon who rushed home, distraught and over run with worry. He contacted Hades immediately and begged him to return her to him. He offered Hades anything he wanted if he would only return her. But Hades refused. Poseidon tried everything he could think of to get her back, asked Zeus (the king of the gods) to talk to Hades, Zeus even ordered Hades to return her, he had Zeus send in soldiers equipped with many weapons, he even sent his own soldiers in to try and sneak her out. Nothing worked. It had been weeks of desperate attempts to get her back, but nothing had come of it. In a final desperate attempt to reach her, he flooded the Underworld, knowing Hades couldn't operate in water, and went in himself, this time reaching her and taking her to safety. He left the Underworld flooded for he knew that as long it was flooded, Thalassa would be safe.

Time passed and no one on earth died, the Underworld was shut down so no one could die for there was no place for them to go. People who would normally have died of sickness or old age just kept living. This might sound like a good thing but those who were ill lived with the torture of the diseases every day, never recovering, just living in a constant toil of pain and misery. The gods begged Poseidon to save the Underworld and stop this suffering and finally he agreed but before fixing it, he built a palace in the area in which he was going to release the water, so that he and Thalassa could live safely under the water away from Hades. Finally, when the palace was built, he opened a rift in the earth, releasing the water, and flooding the area in which his palace was. In a final attempt to grab Thalassa, Hades reached through the rift, shooting flames up towards them, to this day deep in the sea, hot water steams through a small crack in the Earth's surface burning from Hades jealousy and hatred. Poseidon named this vast body of water Thalassa, after his wife. In English, Thalassa means sea. To this day he and his wife live happily under the sea with their son Triton, still untouched by Hades.