Neptune (mythology) to. Poseidon on the other hand underwent the process of becoming the main god of the sea at a much earlier time, as is shown in the Iliad. In the earlier times it was the god Portunus or Fortunus who was thanked for naval victories, but Neptune supplanted him in this role by at least the first century BC when Sextus Pompeius called himself "son of Neptune." For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water. Neptune was also considered the legendary progenitor god of a Latin stock, the Faliscans, who called themselves "Neptunia proles".
Neptune (mythology) In another place of his work, book VI, Nigidius wrote that, according to the Etrusca Disciplina, his were one among the four "genera", types of Penates: of Iupiter, of Neptune, of the underworld and of mortal men. According to another tradition related by a Caesius, also based on the same source, the Etruscan Penates would be Fortuna, Ceres, Genius Iovialis and Pales, this last one being the male Etruscan god ("ministrum Iovis et vilicum", domestic and peasant of Jupiter). Neptune is depicted in the 7th and final movement of Gustav Holst's orchestral suite 'The Planets', subtitled 'The Mystic' as Holst