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Pontus was an ancient Greek god who represented the sea itself. He matters primarily as part of Greek mythology's attempt to explain natural forces and the world around them through divine figures.
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In Greek mythology, Pontus (Ancient Greek: Πόντος, lit. 'Sea') is the personification of the sea. In Hesiod's Theogony (8th or 7th century BC), he is the offspring of Gaia (the Earth), who produces him alone. With Gaia, he becomes the progenitor of a family comprising mostly marine beings and monsters; the pair's children are Nereus, Phorcys, Ceto, Thaumas, and Eurybia. In a fragment of the lost Titanomachy (late 7th century BC or afterwards), Pontus and Gaia are described as the parents of Aigaion. The 2nd-century AD Fabulae assigns Pontus a consort named Mare ('The sea'), and places him as the son of Gaia and Aether (the Upper Sky).
Pontus is depicted on a Roman mosaic from Mérida, Spain, dating to around the late 2nd century AD, on which only fragments of his body survive. A 2nd-century AD marble statue shows him as a patron deity of Tomis (modern-day Constanța, Romania), alongside the Roman goddess Fortuna.