Neptune II

Location: The Ocean Front in Virginia Beach, VA - USA
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Neptune (Latin: Neptūnus) is the god of water and the sea in Roman mythology, a brother of Jupiter and Pluto. He is analogous with but not identical to the god Poseidon of Greek mythology. The Roman conception of Neptune owed a great deal to the Etruscan god Nethuns.

For a time he was paired with Salacia, possibly the goddess of the salt water. At an early date (899 BC) he was identified with Poseidon, when the Sibylline books ordered a lectisternium in his honor (Livy v. 13). In the earlier times it was the god Portunes 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". Neptune is associated as well with fresh water, as opposed to Oceanus, god of the world-ocean. Like Poseidon, Neptune was also worshiped by the Romans as a god of horses, under the name "Neptune Equester", patron of horse-racing. The planet Neptune was named after the god, as its deep blue gas clouds gave early astronomers the impression of great oceans.