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Poseidon
Mit dem Werkbeitrag aus Kindlers Literatur Lexikon.
Mit dem Autorenporträt aus dem Metzler Lexikon Weltliteratur.
Mit Daten zu Leben und Werk, exklusiv verfasst von der Redaktion der Zeitschrift für Literatur TEXT + KRITIK.
Phantastisches und Unheimliches, Paradoxes und Kafka beschreibt die unglaublichsten Sachverhalte nüchtern und minutiös. Grenzbereiche werden ausgeleuchtet, existenzielle Grund- oder Ausnahmesituationen in unvergessliche Bilder gefasst. Seine Texte haben die gleiche Intensität wie Träume. »Es ist das Schicksal und vielleicht auch die Größe dieses Werks, dass es alle Möglichkeiten darbietet und keine bestätigt« (Albert Camus).
Mit dem Autorenporträt aus dem Metzler Lexikon Weltliteratur.
Mit Daten zu Leben und Werk, exklusiv verfasst von der Redaktion der Zeitschrift für Literatur TEXT + KRITIK.
Phantastisches und Unheimliches, Paradoxes und Kafka beschreibt die unglaublichsten Sachverhalte nüchtern und minutiös. Grenzbereiche werden ausgeleuchtet, existenzielle Grund- oder Ausnahmesituationen in unvergessliche Bilder gefasst. Seine Texte haben die gleiche Intensität wie Träume. »Es ist das Schicksal und vielleicht auch die Größe dieses Werks, dass es alle Möglichkeiten darbietet und keine bestätigt« (Albert Camus).
15 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1920
2 people are currently reading
338 people want to read
About the author
Franz Kafka
3,233 books38.7k followersFranz Kafka was a German-speaking writer from Prague whose work became one of the foundations of modern literature, even though he published only a small part of his writing during his lifetime. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Prague, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka grew up amid German, Czech, and Jewish cultural influences that shaped his sense of displacement and linguistic precision. His difficult relationship with his authoritarian father left a lasting mark, fostering feelings of guilt, anxiety, and inadequacy that became central themes in his fiction and personal writings.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.
Kafka studied law at the German University in Prague, earning a doctorate in 1906. He chose law for practical reasons rather than personal inclination, a compromise that troubled him throughout his life. After university, he worked for several insurance institutions, most notably the Workers Accident Insurance Institute for the Kingdom of Bohemia. His duties included assessing industrial accidents and drafting legal reports, work he carried out competently and responsibly. Nevertheless, Kafka regarded his professional life as an obstacle to his true vocation, and most of his writing was done at night or during periods of illness and leave. Kafka began publishing short prose pieces in his early adulthood, later collected in volumes such as Contemplation and A Country Doctor. These works attracted little attention at the time but already displayed the hallmarks of his mature style, including precise language, emotional restraint, and the application of calm logic to deeply unsettling situations. His major novels The Trial, The Castle, and Amerika were left unfinished and unpublished during his lifetime. They depict protagonists trapped within opaque systems of authority, facing accusations, rules, or hierarchies that remain unexplained and unreachable. Themes of alienation, guilt, bureaucracy, law, and punishment run throughout Kafka’s work. His characters often respond to absurd or terrifying circumstances with obedience or resignation, reflecting his own conflicted relationship with authority and obligation. Kafka’s prose avoids overt symbolism, yet his narratives function as powerful metaphors through structure, repetition, and tone. Ordinary environments gradually become nightmarish without losing their internal coherence. Kafka’s personal life was marked by emotional conflict, chronic self-doubt, and recurring illness. He formed intense but troubled romantic relationships, including engagements that he repeatedly broke off, fearing that marriage would interfere with his writing. His extensive correspondence and diaries reveal a relentless self-critic, deeply concerned with morality, spirituality, and the demands of artistic integrity. In his later years, Kafka’s health deteriorated due to tuberculosis, forcing him to withdraw from work and spend long periods in sanatoriums. Despite his illness, he continued writing when possible. He died young, leaving behind a large body of unpublished manuscripts. Before his death, he instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all of his remaining work. Brod ignored this request and instead edited and published Kafka’s novels, stories, and diaries, ensuring his posthumous reputation.
The publication of Kafka’s work after his death established him as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The term Kafkaesque entered common usage to describe situations marked by oppressive bureaucracy, absurd logic, and existential anxiety. His writing has been interpreted through existential, religious, psychological, and political perspectives, though Kafka himself resisted definitive meanings. His enduring power lies in his ability to articulate modern anxiety with clarity and restraint.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
October 6, 2018
القصة بصوتي وربنا يسامحني ع الجريمة دي :D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbG94...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbG94...
December 17, 2016
Yet another one of Kafka's quintessential dystopian fantasy worlds. I liked the fact that even the Greek gods were portrayed like humans, with their own ego, insecurity issues etc.
July 23, 2021
"Silently he sat on the rocky coast and a gull, dazed by his presence"
I had been dazed by the idea of my presence and existence so many times and it was shocking when i realize how l lost myself in the middle of the modren life chaos every single time .
I had been dazed by the idea of my presence and existence so many times and it was shocking when i realize how l lost myself in the middle of the modren life chaos every single time .
August 5, 2018
* 4.5 Stars *
Great short by Kafka that includes the contrast between power and meaning.
September 22, 2020
Give the Gods a break , they re living their own Kafkaesque.
January 19, 2020
مش فاهم قصدك يا عم كافكا
Read
December 1, 2022Hey I read this too! This is so Kafka. I think I read this for the satire unit in my English class and it's a great critique on bureaucracy.
August 12, 2021
I just randomly remembered it (haven't read it in ages too). I don't think I have a favorite short story, but if I had to choose one, this one would be one of the biggest contenders, as well as the most likely to make it out of all of Kafka's stories.
Yes, The Hunger Artist, The Metamorphosis and all of those other tales were probably more "impactful" on literature or whatever, but Poseidon is for me something I truly carry in the inside.
You can't ask it for more, it's all of Kafka condensed in one minuscule piece of writing.
Yes, The Hunger Artist, The Metamorphosis and all of those other tales were probably more "impactful" on literature or whatever, but Poseidon is for me something I truly carry in the inside.
You can't ask it for more, it's all of Kafka condensed in one minuscule piece of writing.
May 2, 2021
Yesterday was labour day, and today I read this story. The timing is perfect.
December 31, 2022
December 2022:
A story about Kafka.
A story about Kafka.
Read
January 23, 2024Seems like ruling the seas is far distant from cruising waves and killing sea monsters like one kills flies (and how some kill time) with a roaring trident. I like not to speak of tridents as I am prone to minecraft ptsd, but my fellow Poseidon here, has far greater worries and wars to fight. Accounting the paper work of the endless seas, flowing through ponds, the rivers, the tributaries, why isn't it an endless notion of the sea? But one has not to worry, surely the god of seas will be set free from the bindings of the bundles pilled (not the bodies of the dead, silly!) deep inside the depths of the ocean. In fact quite soon indeed; he is to be freed. All it takes is the end of the world and all the quiet that it shall bring, but that too shall only be enough for a quick break.
July 18, 2017
Zora
Zagreb, 1968.
S njemačkog preveo Zlatko Matetić
Užasno simpatična crtica užasno dobrog Kafke.
Posejdon je birokrat koji od silne papirologije ni ne stigne ikada obići sva mora. Ne znam je li sljedeće što ću navesti tipfeler ili ne, ili je pak sam Kafka falio, no navodio se kao Posejdonov šef Jupiter. Posejdon i Jupiter!?
Kako bi se Kafka danas rugao s Europskom unijom, njezinim planovima i uputama, budi pozdravljen dragi Kafka. Zanima me da li i mrtvi čitaju moje kratkosvrte? Mislim, ako mogu glasati, mogu i čitati. Pozdravljam svo svoje čitateljstvo, i živuće i pokojno!
Zagreb, 1968.
S njemačkog preveo Zlatko Matetić
Užasno simpatična crtica užasno dobrog Kafke.
Posejdon je birokrat koji od silne papirologije ni ne stigne ikada obići sva mora. Ne znam je li sljedeće što ću navesti tipfeler ili ne, ili je pak sam Kafka falio, no navodio se kao Posejdonov šef Jupiter. Posejdon i Jupiter!?
Kako bi se Kafka danas rugao s Europskom unijom, njezinim planovima i uputama, budi pozdravljen dragi Kafka. Zanima me da li i mrtvi čitaju moje kratkosvrte? Mislim, ako mogu glasati, mogu i čitati. Pozdravljam svo svoje čitateljstvo, i živuće i pokojno!
March 23, 2023
“It cannot be said that he enjoyed his work; he did it only because it had been assigned to him…”
“He was in the habit of saying that what he was waiting for was the fall of the world; then, probably, a quiet moment would be granted in which, just before the end and having checked the last row of figures, he would be able to make a quick little tour.”
“Poseidon became bored with the sea. He let fall his trident.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2023
The professor who borrowed me the book actually took it back, so I am unable to write down a favorite paragraph or quotes, unfortunately. This feels like a part of The Silence of the Sirens story.
April 19, 2020
قصة مستوحاة من الأساطير الإغريقية لاله البحر الذي تحول الى موظف بائس
April 16, 2021
sed
*Also this is the first e-book I ever borrowed from an online library :D*
*Also this is the first e-book I ever borrowed from an online library :D*
February 2, 2023
Bureaucracy induces amnesia even in the gods.
May 6, 2024
poseidon and the bureaucracy :p
July 8, 2024
goodreads reading challenge here i come !!!!!!
January 7, 2025
Incredible. No one depicts the condition of the 21st century man like kafka
November 23, 2025
Ich bin mir nicht ganz sicher, ob Poseidon ein Fragment einer größeren Geschichte sein soll, was ja bei Kafkas Opus durchaus vorkommt. Max Brod veröffentlichte Poseidon als die Kurzgeschichte, die sie heute ist. Und als solche ist sie absolut bahnbrechend und als Charaktervorstellung so gut wie perfekt. Das einzige, das zu bemängeln wäre, ist eben, dass man nicht weiterlesen kann, wie es mit dem titelgebenden Gott oder etwaigen anderen weitergeht.
January 12, 2026
“Thus he had hardly seen the sea — had seen it but fleetingly in the course of hurried ascents to Olympus, and he had never actually traveled around it.”
March 28, 2024
What if Poseidon truly was the only one who could do that work? What if the oceans fell apart if he didn’t?
July 25, 2023
Petulante.
Ni siquiera Poseidón se salva de la burocracia.
Para entender el contexto en el que la obra surgió, debemos saber que en el otoño de 1920 Kafka se separó de su amante Milena Jesenska. Es entonces cuando nuestro escritor es sucumbido por un impulso productivo –surge entonces una serie de piezas cortas en prosa; The City Arms, The Helmsman, Community, Our Little Town (Rejection), Testing, The Vulture, The Gyro, Small Fable, Poseidon y otras tantas.–
La perspectiva narrativa no es única y cambia entre el primer y el segundo párrafo: se trata de una figura anónima a su lado; una perspectiva impersonal de "uno" por encima de Poseidón. Una figura que lo desprecia junto a todas sus quejas y refunfuños.
Todo el día sentado, calculando todas las acciones y finanzas del mar sin siquiera brindarse la oportunidad de conocer al mismo. Se dará tiempo de conocer las aguas hasta el mero final de aquella materia líquida –afirmó aquel peculiar ser que dejó el tridente por una sólida corbata.
Aquel sobrante de dios logró algo que ni siquiera él conocía; una manifestación malvada y típica de la burocracia...
Ni siquiera Poseidón se salva de la burocracia.
Para entender el contexto en el que la obra surgió, debemos saber que en el otoño de 1920 Kafka se separó de su amante Milena Jesenska. Es entonces cuando nuestro escritor es sucumbido por un impulso productivo –surge entonces una serie de piezas cortas en prosa; The City Arms, The Helmsman, Community, Our Little Town (Rejection), Testing, The Vulture, The Gyro, Small Fable, Poseidon y otras tantas.–
La perspectiva narrativa no es única y cambia entre el primer y el segundo párrafo: se trata de una figura anónima a su lado; una perspectiva impersonal de "uno" por encima de Poseidón. Una figura que lo desprecia junto a todas sus quejas y refunfuños.
Todo el día sentado, calculando todas las acciones y finanzas del mar sin siquiera brindarse la oportunidad de conocer al mismo. Se dará tiempo de conocer las aguas hasta el mero final de aquella materia líquida –afirmó aquel peculiar ser que dejó el tridente por una sólida corbata.
Aquel sobrante de dios logró algo que ni siquiera él conocía; una manifestación malvada y típica de la burocracia...
November 20, 2023
common kafka win!
personally I connected the themes a lot with Marx's theory of Alienation. though this adds a lot of nuance and grey shades to that theory, as it is arguable that Poseidon (god that he is) would then be representative of the bourgeoisie. but then again, i know nothing about anything and these are all just words (i'm going insane i really shouldn't have any right to talk about anything ever please do not read into this with any level of sincerity (unless you want to I guess, who am i to tell you what to do))
personally I connected the themes a lot with Marx's theory of Alienation. though this adds a lot of nuance and grey shades to that theory, as it is arguable that Poseidon (god that he is) would then be representative of the bourgeoisie. but then again, i know nothing about anything and these are all just words (i'm going insane i really shouldn't have any right to talk about anything ever please do not read into this with any level of sincerity (unless you want to I guess, who am i to tell you what to do))
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews