Why Is Poseidon So Mean?

No more Bhagavad-Gita! Now we are reading Metamorphoses, Mary Zimmerman's version, although we read some stories by Ovid too. Last semester my school did the play, which is probably the only reason why I can understand it. The first story we read is Ceyx and Alcyone. Alcyone is the daughter of Aeolus, the god of winds, and her husband Ceyx has to leave on a long voyage. This was one of the stories where we read both versions. During the voyage, Poseidon (God of Water) got mad, manipulated the waves and killed everybody. Before he killed everybody, however, Ceyx was longing for his bride and he kept repeating her name. It was really cute in kind of a weird way. Afterwards, an somebody impersonating Ceyx goes toCeyx goes tell Alcyone what happened. In the end they turned into seagulls and lived happily ever after. Now thats what I cal weird, it's still a nice love story.

Has anybody noticed how angry Poseidon always is? I mean, was it honestly necessary to go and kill everybody in this story? Another good example: The Little Mermaid. Ariel's father Neptune (not named Poseidon, but still the same person) was always so mad. All my years watching that show and I hardly ever saw him smile!

My bad, Ariel's dad was King Triton, still this is the way I see Poseidon.