Triton is usually represented as amerman, 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. InEnglish literature, Triton is portrayed as the messenger orherald for the god Poseidon.
Triton was the son ofPoseidon andAmphitrite according toHesiod'sTheogony.[1][2] He was the ruler (possessor) of the depths of the sea,[1] who is either "dreadful" or "mighty" (δεινός) according to the epithet given him by Hesiod.[1][3]
Triton dwelt with his parents in underwater golden palaces.[1] Poseidon's golden palace was located atAegae onEuboea in one passage of Homer'sIliad 12.21.[4][5][6][a]
Unlike his father Poseidon who is always fullyanthropomorphic 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.
Triton blowing a conch. Statue at Wasserspiele Hellbrunn,Hellbrunn Palace, Salzburg, Austria
Triton in later times became associated with possessing aconch shell,[7] which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves.[9] He was "trumpeter and bugler" toOceanus andPoseidon.[10] 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.[11]
The original Greek Triton only sometimes bore a trident.[12] In literature, Triton carries a trident inAccius'sMedea fragment.[13][14][b]
Triton is "sea-hued" according toOvid and "his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells".[17] Ovid actually here calls Triton "cerulean" in color, to choose acognate rendering to the original language (Latin:caeruleus);[18][19] Ovid also includes Triton among other deities (Proteus,Aegaeon,Doris) of being this blue color, with green (viridis) hair,[20][21] as well describing the steed Triton rides as cerulean.[23]
There is also Triton, the god ofLake Tritonis ofAncient Libya encountered by theArgonauts. This Triton is treated as a separate deity in some references.[24][7] He had a different parentage, as his father was Poseidon but his motherEuropa according to the Greek writers of this episode.[26]
This Triton first appeared in the guise ofEurypylus before eventually revealing his divine nature.[27] This local deity has thus beeneuhemeristically rationalized as "then ruler over Libya" byDiodorus Siculus.[28]
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 ofCyrene, Libya in the future.[7] TheArgo 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 theMediterranean.[27][29]
One of the works which recounts this adventure isApollonius of Rhodes'Argonautica (3rd century BC), the first work in written literature that describes a Triton as "fish-tailed".[30]
InVirgil'sAeneid, book 6, it is told that Triton killedMisenus, son ofAeolus, by drowning him after he challenged the gods to play as well as he did.[31][7]
Herakles wrestling Triton is a common theme inClassical Greek art particularlyblack-figure pottery,[32] but no literature survives that tells the story.[33] In fewer examples, theGreek pottery depicting apparently the samemotif are labeled "Nereus" or "Old Man of the Sea" instead, and among these, Nereus' struggle with Herakles is attested in literature (Pseudo-Apollodorus,Bibliotheca).[34] "Old Man of the Sea" is a generic term applicable to Nereus, who was also frequently depicted as half-fishlike.[34][35] 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.[36]
In thered-figure period, the Triton-Herakles theme became completely outmoded, supplanted by such scenes asTheseus's adventures in Poseidon's golden mansion, embellished with the presence of Triton.[32] Again, extant literature describing the adventure omits any mention of Triton,[37] but placement of Triton in the scene is not implausible.[32]
A pair of goldarmbands, with a triton and tritoness respectively (left). The bearded triton band in detail (right). Both figures are holding aputto (perhapsEros).
Triton was the father of a daughter namedPallas and foster parent to the goddessAthena, according to Pseudo-Apollodorus'sBibliotheca.[c][39] Elsewhere in theBibliotheca, there appears a differentPallas, a male figure overcome by Athena.[d][40]
Athena bears the epithetTritogeneia (Τριτογένεια) "Triton-born"[42] and while this is suggestive of Triton's daughter being Athena,[43] the appellation is otherwise explainable in several ways, e.g., as Athena's birth (from Zeus's head) taking place at the River Triton orLake Tritonis.[44]
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 aneponymous city after Triteia, founded by her andAres's son, namedMelanippus ("Black Horse").[45]
Greek pottery depicting a half-human, half-fish being bearing an inscription of "Triton" is popular by the 6th century BC.[30] It has also been hypothesized that by this time "Triton" has become a generic term for a merman.[46][e]
Furthermore, Tritons in groups or multitudes began to be depicted inClassical Greek art by around the 4th century BC.[f][47] Among these is the work by Greek sculptorScopas (d. 350 BC) which was later removed to Rome.[48] Thesirens of Homer'sOdyssey 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,[g] and this is explained as a conflation with Odysseus'sScylla andCharybdis episode.[49][50]
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.[51]
In later Greek periods into the Roman period Tritons were depicted asichthyocentaurs, i.e., merman with a horse's forelegs in place of arms. The earliest known examples are from the 2nd century BC.[h][52] The term "Ichthyocentaur" did not originate in Ancient Greece, and only appeared in writing in theByzantine period (12th century); "Centaur-Triton" is another word for a Triton with horse-legs.[8][53]
Triton with wings instead of forelegs. Bas-Relief. Glyptothek Munich 239.
Triton with clawed feet. Sketch of relief sculpture. Glyptothek Munich 115.[54][55]
Triton half-man, half-lobster. Herculanum fresco, formerly held at Museo di Portici.[56]
Triton with two fish-tails. Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus. Glyptothek Munich.
Besides examples in which the horse-like forelimbs have been replaced by wings,[53] there are other examples where the forelegs have several clawed digits (somewhat like lions), as in one relief at theGlyptothek in Munich, Germany.[54][55] A Triton with a lower extremity like a lobster or crayfish, in a fresco unearthed fromHerculanum has been mentioned.[57][56]
Double-tailed tritons began to be depicted by the late 2nd century BC, such as in theAltar of Domitius Ahenobarbus.Rumpf thought that might be the earliest example of a "Triton with two fish-tails (Triton mit zwei Fischschwänzen)".[58] However the double-tailed tritonesses inDamophon's sculptures atLycosura predates it, and even this is doubted to be the first example.[59] Lattimore believed the two-tailed triton should be dated to the 4th century BC, and speculated that Skopas was the one to devise it.[60][62]
As aforementioned, there is the female version of the half-human, half-fishlike being, sometimes called a "tritoness"[63] or a "female triton".[64]
The first literary attestation of Tritons (Latin:Trītōnēs) in the plural was Virgil'sAeneid (c. 29–19 BC).[48][65] In the 1st century CE, another Latin poetValerius Flaccus wrote inArgonautica that there was a huge Triton at each side of Neptune's chariot, holding the reins of horses.[66][22] AndStatius (1st century) makes a Tritonfigurehead adorn the prow of theArgo.[68]
Tritons (Greek:Τρίτωνες,romanized: Trítōnes) were described in detail in the 2nd century CE byPausanias (ix. 21).[70][8]
The Tritons have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs (Ancient Greek:βατράχιον, plants of theRanunculus or buttercup genus[i]) 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,[j] 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.
Pausanias was basing his descriptions on a headless Triton exhibited inTanagra and another curiosity in Rome. These Tritons were preserved mummies or taxidermied real animals or humans (or fabrication made to appear as such).[72][73] The Tanagran Triton was seen byAelian who described it as an embalmed or stuffed mummy (Ancient Greek:τάριχος).[74] While Pausanias related a legend around the Tanagran Triton that its head was cut off,J. G. Frazer conjectured that such acover story had to be invented after a sea mammal's carcass with a severed or severely mutilated head was passed off as a Triton.[73][k]
Triton was referred to as "trumpeter of Neptune (Neptuni tubicen)" inCristoforo Landino (d. 1498)'s commentary on Virgil;[76] this phrasing later appeared in the gloss for "Triton" inMarius Nizolius'sThesaurus (1551),[77] andKonrad Gesner's book (1558).[78]
Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted the "Neptune and Triton" fountain (1622–23) now in theVictoria and Albert Museum[82][83] and theTriton Fountain (1642–43) in Bernini Square, Rome.[84][85] 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'sAlpheus and Arethusa (1568–70) or his Triton blowing the conch (late 1570s),[86] orStoldo Lorenzi's Neptune fountain.[87] ButRudolf Wittkower has cautioned against exaggerating the influences of Florentine fountains.[87] It has been pointed out that Bernini had access to the Papal collection[l] of genuine Greco-Roman sculptures, and worked with restoring ancient fragments,[90] 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 ancientAltar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, which does include Triton in its composition.[91] The Triton of this altar, the Stoldo Lorenzi Triton and the Bernini Triton are all double-tailed, like a pair of human legs.[92]
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
The largest moon of the planetNeptune has been given the nameTriton, 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", seeTriton (gastropod).
The name Triton is associated in modern industry with tough hard-wearing machines such as theFord Triton engine andMitsubishi Triton pickup truck.
TheUSS Triton (SSN-586) was the only attack submarine of her class, and the onlyUS Navy nuclear-powered submarine to have two reactors. She was decommissioned in 1969 and languished awaiting scrapping until 2007, which began atPuget Sound Naval Shipyard, and was completed as of 30 November 2009.
^A triton (see§Tritons below) andmerman are synonymous in heraldry,[15] and the figure may often carry a trident.[16]
^In this story, Pallas was inadvertently killed by Athena during sparring, and the goddess subsequently took a wooden figurine of Pallas and wrapped theAegis (goat-skin) around it, thus creating thepalladium.
^In Apollod. 1.6, Frazer ed., the Pallas who Athena slew and whose flayed skin she used as shield-covering, whichDGRBM says was a giant ( "Pallas (3)").[40] Cf. Frazer, note 8 andDGRBM "Pallas (5)".[41][40]
^As aforementioned, "Triton" is the most common label, but "Nereus", and "Old Man of the Sea" are found as inscriptions in six century pottery depicting the motif of Herakles wrestling a sea-monster.[34]
^Excepting Etruscan art, which has older examples.
^Lattimore (1976), p. 56: "By the sixth century, to judge from inscriptions on vases, 'Triton' was the most popular designation for the merman".
^Lattimore (1976), p. 30: "The next stage—pluralization of Triton (originally a god) ... is not attested before the fourth century except in Etruscan art."
^Skopa's sculpture is long lost. Cf. A. F. Stewart's remark that hypotheses on a lost work causes Lattimore to adopt an equivocal ("might-have-beens"), though Lattimore is uniquely resolute on the "conclusion [that] the double-tailed Triton was probably Skopas's creation (p. 61)".[61]
^Wilkins, Ann Thomas (2000). "Bernini and Ovid: Expanding the Concept of Metamorphosis".International Journal of the Classical Tradition.6 (3):401–405.JSTOR30222585
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