The God Beneath the Sea

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**Title** **The God Beneath the Sea**
Author	Leon Garfield, Edward Blishen
Illustrator	Charles Keeping
Cover artist	Charles Keeping
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Children's novel
Publisher	Longman
Released	26 October, 1970
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	168 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0582150930 (first edition, hardback)
Followed by	The Golden Shadow

The God Beneath the Sea is a children's novel by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen, with illustrations by Charles Keeping. The novel is based on Greek mythology. The God Beneath the Sea was awarded the 1970 Carnegie Medal, and was runner-up for the 1970 Kate Greenaway Medal. The novel was republished with illustrations by Zevi Blum in 1971 by Random House.

Garfield, Blishen and Keeping collaborated on a sequel entitled The Golden Shadow, which covers the myths of the heroic age.

[edit] Plot introduction

The novel is divided into three parts. Part one begins with the new-born Hephaestus (the titular god beneath the sea) cast from Mount Olympus by Hera. He is raised in a grotto by Thetis and Eurynome, and the two goddesses tell the infant Hephaestus various tales of the Titans and twelve Olympians. Part one concludes with Hermes inviting Hephaestus back to Olympus at Hera's bequest, and Hephaestus claiming Aphrodite for his wife. Part two retells the myths of Prometheus and Pandora, and part three retells various myths from the age of gods and men. The novel concludes with Hephaestus returning to Olympus from Lemnos, having been cast down for a second time after reproaching Zeus.

[edit] Allusions/references to other works

Blishen and Garfield based their writing on four source texts: E. V. Rieu's translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Metamorphoses, and Robert Graves' The Greek Myths.^[1]