Greek sea gods conform to a single type: that of Homer's "halios geron" or Old Man of the Sea: Nereus, Proteus, Glaucus and Phorkys. These sea gods are not as powerful as Poseidon, the main god of the oceans and seas. Each one is a shape-shifter, a prophet, and the father of either radiantly beautiful nymphs or hideous monsters (or both, in the case of Phorkys). Nymphs and monsters blur, for Hesiod relates that Phorcys was wed to the "beautiful-cheeked" Ceto, whose name is merely the feminine of the monstrous Cetus, to whom Andromeda was due to be sacrificed. Each appearance in myth
The God Beneath the Sea project this by taking "a symbolic line, so if you look at them you will find there's a symbolic overtone in them." At the time of the book's publication, Keeping was looking forward to working with the authors on the sequel "The Golden Shadow", as he hoped "to redeem some of the mistakes of the first one." The Library Association recognised "The God Beneath The Sea" for both of its annual children's book awards, the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal. Garfield and Blishen won the Carnegie Medal, for the year's best children's book by a British subject. Keeping