Triton (mythology)

Triton (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx) is a Greek god of the sea, the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Triton lived with his parents in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea. Later he is often depicted as having a conch shell he would blow like a trumpet.Template:Citation needed

Triton is usually represented as a merman, with the upper body of a human and the tailed lower body of a fish. At some time during the Greek and Roman era, Triton(s) became a generic term for a merman (mermen) in art and literature. In English literature, Triton is portrayed as the messenger or herald for the god Poseidon.

Triton of Lake Tritonis of ancient Libya is a namesake mythical figure that appeared and aided the Argonauts. Moreover, according to Apollonius Rhodius, he married the Oceanid of the said region, Libya.

Sea god

Triton was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite according to Hesiod's Theogony.<ref name="theogony-tr-most" /><ref name="handbook" /> He was the ruler (possessor) of the depths of the sea,<ref name="theogony-tr-most" /> who is either "dreadful" or "mighty" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) according to the epithet given him by Hesiod.<ref name="theogony-tr-most" />Template:Sfnp

Triton dwelt with his parents in underwater golden palaces.<ref name="theogony-tr-most" /> Poseidon's golden palace was located at Aegae on Euboea in one passage of Homer's Iliad 12.21.<ref>Template:Cite Iliad (text@Perseus Project)</ref><ref name="theogony-ed-west" /><ref name="dgrg" />Template:Refn

Unlike his father Poseidon who is always fully anthropomorphic in ancient art (this has only changed in modern popular culture), Triton's lower half is that of a fish, while the top half is presented in a human figure.

File:Salzburg - Wasserspiele Hellbrunn 01 - 2018-08-21.jpg

Triton blowing a conch. Statue at Wasserspiele Hellbrunn, Hellbrunn Palace, Salzburg, Austria

Triton in later times became associated with possessing a conch shell,<ref name="oxford-classical-dict" /> which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves.Template:Refn He was "trumpeter and bugler" to Oceanus and Poseidon.<ref name="natale-conti" /> Its sound was so cacophonous that when loudly blown, it put the giants to flight, who imagined it to be the roar of a dark wild beast.Template:Refn

The original Greek Triton only sometimes bore a trident.<ref name="ashton" /> In literature, Triton carries a trident in Accius's Medea fragment.<ref name="fitch" /><ref name="slaney" />Template:Refn

Triton is "sea-hued" according to Ovid and "his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells".<ref name="ovid-met-deucalion-tr-melville" /> Ovid actually here calls Triton "cerulean" in color, to choose a cognate rendering to the original language (Template:Langx);<ref name="ovid-met-deucalion-tr-lombardo" /><ref>Ovid, {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}</ref> Ovid also includes Triton among other deities (Proteus, Aegaeon, Doris) of being this blue color, with green (Template:Linktext) hair,<ref>Ovid, {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}</ref><ref name="ovid-met-phaeton-tr-martin" /> as well describing the steed Triton rides as cerulean.Template:Refn

Libyan lake god

File:Athens Ancient Agora Statue 06.jpg

Relief of Triton from a pillar in the Odeon of Agrippa in the Ancient Agora of Athens, Greece.

There is also Triton, the god of Lake Tritonis of Ancient Libya encountered by the Argonauts. This Triton is treated as a separate deity in some references.<ref>Template:Cite DGRBM</ref><ref name="oxford-classical-dict" /> He had a different parentage, as his father was Poseidon but his mother Europa according to the Greek writers of this episode.Template:Refn

This Triton first appeared in the guise of Eurypylus before eventually revealing his divine nature.<ref name="pindarus&apollonius">Pindar, Pythian 4; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, iv. 1552ff; .</ref> This local deity has thus been euhemeristically rationalized as "then ruler over Libya" by Diodorus Siculus.<ref>Diodorus iv.56.6.</ref>

Triton-Eurypylus welcomed the Argonauts with a guest-gift of a clod of earth which was a pledge that the Greeks would be granted the land of Cyrene, Libya in the future.<ref name="oxford-classical-dict" /> The Argo had been driven ashore in the Syrtes (Gulf of Syrtes Minor according to some), and Triton guided them through the lake's marshy outlet back to the Mediterranean.<ref name="pindarus&apollonius" />Template:Sfnp

One of the works which recounts this adventure is Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica (3rd century BC), the first work in written literature that describes a Triton as "fish-tailed".Template:Sfnp

Triton with men and heroes

File:Attic black-figure hydria attributed to the Rycroft Painter, dating c. 520 – c. 510 BCE, depicting Herakles wrestling Triton, Eskenazi Museum of Art.jpg

Attic black-figure hydria attributed to the Rycroft Painter, dating Template:C.–Template:C., depicting Heracles wrestling Triton, Eskenazi Museum of Art

In Virgil's Aeneid, book 6, it is told that Triton killed Misenus, son of Aeolus, by drowning him after he challenged the gods to play as well as he did.<ref>Virgil, Aeneid 6.164 ff..</ref><ref name="oxford-classical-dict" />

Iconography of Triton duels

Herakles wrestling Triton is a common theme in Classical Greek art particularly black-figure pottery,Template:Sfnp but no literature survives that tells the story.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In fewer examples, the Greek pottery depicting apparently the same motif are labeled "Nereus" or "Old Man of the Sea" instead, and among these, Nereus' struggle with Herakles is attested in literature (Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca).<ref name="pedley" /> "Old Man of the Sea" is a generic term applicable to Nereus, who was also frequently depicted as half-fishlike.<ref name="pedley" /><ref name="pulliam" /> One explanation is that some vase painters developed the convention of depicting Nereus as a fully human form, so that Triton had to be substituted in the depiction of the sea-monster wrestling Herakles. And Nereus appears as a spectator in some examples of this motif.<ref name="padgett" />

In the red-figure period, the Triton-Herakles theme became completely outmoded, supplanted by such scenes as Theseus's adventures in Poseidon's golden mansion, embellished with the presence of Triton.Template:Sfnp Again, extant literature describing the adventure omits any mention of Triton,<ref>Bacchylides 17, Hygnius Poeticon astronomicon 2.5, Pausanias 1. 17.3, apud Template:Harvp</ref> but placement of Triton in the scene is not implausible.Template:Sfnp

Further genealogy

Template:Multiple image Triton was the father of a daughter named Pallas and foster parent to the goddess Athena, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca.Template:Refn<ref>{{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}; or 3.144: Template:Cite book</ref> Elsewhere in the Bibliotheca, there appears a different Pallas, a male figure overcome by Athena.Template:Refn<ref name="dgrbm-pallas3" />

Athena bears the epithet Tritogeneia ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) "Triton-born"<ref name="theogony895" /> and while this is suggestive of Triton's daughter being Athena,Template:Refn the appellation is otherwise explainable in several ways, e.g., as Athena's birth (from Zeus's head) taking place at the River Triton or Lake Tritonis.<ref name="connelly" />

Triton also had a daughter named Triteia. According to Pausanias writing in the 2nd century CE, one origin story of the city of Triteia held that this was an eponymous city after Triteia, founded by her and Ares's son, named Melanippus ("Black Horse").<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Tritons

File:Clevelandart 1985.184.jpg

Tritoness bronze applique, Greek, 2nd century BC, Cleveland Museum of Art

At some time during the Greco-Roman period, "Tritons", in the plural, came to be used a generic term for mermen.<ref name="handbook" />

Hellenistic and Roman art

Greek pottery depicting a half-human, half-fish being bearing an inscription of "Triton" is popular by the 6th century BC.Template:Sfnp It has also been hypothesized that by this time "Triton" has become a generic term for a merman.<ref>Template:Harvp: "By the sixth century, to judge from inscriptions on vases, 'Triton' was the most popular designation for the merman".</ref>Template:Refn

Furthermore, Tritons in groups or multitudes began to be depicted in Classical Greek art by around the 4th century BC.Template:Efn<ref>Template:Harvp: "The next stage—pluralization of Triton (originally a god) ... is not attested before the fourth century except in Etruscan art."</ref> Among these is the work by Greek sculptor Scopas (d. 350 BC) which was later removed to Rome.<ref name="robinson" /> The sirens of Homer's Odyssey were sometimes being depicted, not as human-headed birds but as tritonesses by around this time, as seen in a bowl dated to the 3rd century BC,Template:Efn and this is explained as a conflation with Odysseus's Scylla and Charybdis episode.<ref name="holford-strevens"/><ref name="thompson"/>

Though not a contemporaneous inscription or commentary, Pliny (d. 79 CE) commented on the work that "there are Nereids riding on dolphins… and also Tritons" in this sculpture.<ref>Template:Cite wikisource</ref>

In later Greek periods into the Roman period Tritons were depicted as ichthyocentaurs, i.e., merman with a horse's forelegs in place of arms. The earliest known examples are from the 2nd century BC.Template:Efn<ref>Rumpf, Andreas (1939) Die Meerwesen, {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}, p. 105 and note 140, apud Template:Harvp, note 84.</ref> The term "Ichthyocentaur" did not originate in Ancient Greece, and only appeared in writing in the Byzantine period (12th century); "Centaur-Triton" is another word for a Triton with horse-legs.<ref name="dgrbm-triton1" /><ref name="packard" />

Template:Multiple image Template:Multiple image Besides examples in which the horse-like forelimbs have been replaced by wings,<ref name="packard" /> there are other examples where the forelegs have several clawed digits (somewhat like lions), as in one relief at the Glyptothek in Munich, Germany.<ref name="roscher" /><ref name="overbeck" /> A Triton with a lower extremity like a lobster or crayfish, in a fresco unearthed from Herculanum has been mentioned.<ref name="clarac" /><ref name="froehner" />

Double-tailed tritons began to be depicted by the late 2nd century BC, such as in the Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus. Rumpf thought that might be the earliest example of a "Triton with two fish-tails (Triton mit zwei Fischschwänzen)".<ref>Rumpf, Andreas (1939), Die Meerwesen, {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}, p. 105 (?) apud Template:Harvp</ref> However the double-tailed tritonesses in Damophon's sculptures at Lycosura predates it, and even this is doubted to be the first example.<ref>Picard, Charles (1948), {{#invoke:URL|url}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:URL with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | 1 | 2 }}, p. 684 apud Template:Harvp</ref> Lattimore believed the two-tailed triton should be dated to the 4th century BC, and speculated that Skopas was the one to devise it.Template:SfnpTemplate:Refn

As aforementioned, there is the female version of the half-human, half-fishlike being, sometimes called a "tritoness"Template:Sfnp or a "female triton".<ref name="lawrence" />

Literature in the Roman period

File:Kameo Augustus mit Tritonengespann KHM IXa 56.jpg

Cameo of Augustus in a quadriga drawn by tritons (Kunsthistorisches Museum)

The first literary attestation of Tritons (Template:Langx) in the plural was Virgil's Aeneid (Template:Circa).<ref name="robinson" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 1st century CE, another Latin poet Valerius Flaccus wrote in Argonautica that there was a huge Triton at each side of Neptune's chariot, holding the reins of horses.<ref name="valerius-argonautica-1.679" /><ref name="kleywegt" /> And Statius (1st century) makes a Triton figurehead adorn the prow of the Argo.Template:Refn

Trions and nereids appear as marine retinues (Template:Langx) to the goddess Venus in Apuleius's Metamorphoses, or "The Golden Ass".<ref name="kenney-apuleius" />

Pausanias

Tritons (Template:Langx) were described in detail in the 2nd century CE by Pausanias (ix. 21).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="dgrbm-triton1">Template:Cite DGRBM</ref>

The Tritons have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs (Template:Langx, plants of the Ranunculus or buttercup genusTemplate:Refn) not only in color, but in the impossibility of separating one hair from another. The rest of their body is rough with fine scales just as is the shark. Under their ears they have gills and a man's nose; but the mouth is broader and the teeth are those of a beast. Their eyes seem to me blue,Template:Efn and they have hands, fingers, and nails like the shells of the murex. Under the breast and belly is a tail like a dolphin's instead of feet.{{#if:|{{#if:|}}

— {{#if:|, in }}Template:Comma separated entries

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Pausanias was basing his descriptions on a headless Triton exhibited in Tanagra and another curiosity in Rome. These Tritons were preserved mummies or taxidermied real animals or humans (or fabrication made to appear as such).Template:Sfnp<ref name="frazer" /> The Tanagran Triton was seen by Aelian who described it as an embalmed or stuffed mummy (Template:Langx).Template:Refn While Pausanias related a legend around the Tanagran Triton that its head was cut off, J. G. Frazer conjectured that such a Template:Linktext had to be invented after a sea mammal's carcass with a severed or severely mutilated head was passed off as a Triton.<ref name="frazer" />Template:Refn

Renaissance

File:Fontaine Triton - Rome (IT62) - 2021-08-30 - 5.jpg

The Triton Fountain (1642–3), by Gianlorenzo Bernini, Rome

Triton was referred to as "trumpeter of Neptune (Neptuni tubicen)" in Cristoforo Landino (d. 1498)'s commentary on Virgil;<ref name="landino" /> this phrasing later appeared in the gloss for "Triton" in Marius Nizolius's Thesaurus (1551),<ref name="nizolius" /> and Konrad Gesner's book (1558).<ref name="gesner" />

Triton makes appearance in English literature as the messenger for the god Poseidon.<ref name="norton" /> In Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, Triton blew "his trompet shrill before" Neptune and Amphitrite.<ref name="norton" /><ref name="spenser" /> And in Milton (1637), "Lycidas" v. 89, "The Herald of the Sea" refers to Triton.<ref name="milton-lycidas-ed-revard" />

Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted the "Neptune and Triton" fountain (1622–23) now in the Victoria and Albert Museum<ref name="barrow" /><ref name="wilkins" /> and the Triton Fountain (1642–43) in Bernini Square, Rome.<ref name="dickerson" /><ref>Template:Harvp, n84</ref> There is differing opinion on what earlier works he may have drawn from near-contemporary works or examples from antiquity. He may have been influenced by Battista di Domenico Lorenzi's Alpheus and Arethusa (1568–70) or his Triton blowing the conch (late 1570s),<ref>Template:Harvp, p. 390 and n24; p. 405, n 82.</ref> or Stoldo Lorenzi's Neptune fountain.<ref name="wittkower" /> But Rudolf Wittkower has cautioned against exaggerating the influences of Florentine fountains.<ref name="wittkower" /> It has been pointed out that Bernini had access to the Papal collectionTemplate:Refn of genuine Greco-Roman sculptures, and worked with restoring ancient fragments,Template:Sfnp although it is unclear if any Triton was among these. It is within the realm of possibilities that Bernini might have used as his model the ancient Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, which does include Triton in its composition.Template:Sfnp The Triton of this altar, the Stoldo Lorenzi Triton and the Bernini Triton are all double-tailed, like a pair of human legs.Template:Sfnp

File:Alexander-Justice-Samuel-Pepys-Josiah-Burchett-A-general-treatise-of-the-dominion-of-the-sea MG 1104.tif

A Triton blowing on a conch on this title page of Alexander Justice, Samuel Pepys and Josiah Burchett: A general treatise of the dominion of the sea, 1710

Romantic era

In Wordsworth's sonnet "The World Is Too Much with Us" (Template:Circa, published 1807), the poet regrets the prosaic humdrum modern world, yearning for

<poem style="margin-left: 2em">glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.</poem>

Mascot

There are numerous universities, colleges, and high schools and businesses that use Triton as their mascot. These include the following:

• University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California
• Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida
• Edmonds College, Lynnwood, Washington
• Iowa Central Community College, Fort Dodge, Iowa
• Mariner High School, Cape Coral, Florida
• Notre Dame Academy, Green Bay, Wisconsin
• San Clemente High School (San Clemente, California)
• University of Guam, Mangilao, Guam
• University of Missouri–St. Louis
• University of Rennes 1, Brittany France

Many club sports teams, especially swimming leagues, use the symbol of Triton.

• Drew Marine, a leading maritime company, also uses the symbol

Eponyms

The largest moon of the planet Neptune has been given the name Triton, as Neptune is the Roman equivalent of Poseidon. A family of large sea snails, the shells of some of which have been used as trumpets since antiquity, are commonly known as "tritons", see Triton (gastropod).

The name Triton is associated in modern industry with tough hard-wearing machines such as the Ford Triton engine and Mitsubishi Triton pickup truck.

The USS Triton (SSN-586) was the only attack submarine of her class, and the only US Navy nuclear-powered submarine to have two reactors. She was decommissioned in 1969 and languished awaiting scrapping until 2007, which began at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, and was completed as of 30 November 2009.

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book
• Template:Cite book

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline
• TheoiProject: Triton Classical references to Triton in English translation
• The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Nereids and Tritons)