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Triton (Τρίτων, gen: Τρίτωνος) is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea. He is the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and Amphitrite, goddess of the sea, whose herald he is. He is usually represented as a merman, having the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, "sea-hued", according to Ovid^[1] "his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells".

Triton's fountain, by Gianlorenzo Bernini, Rome

Like his father, he carried a trident. However, Triton's special attribute was a twisted conch shell, on which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves. Its sound was so terrible, that when loudly blown, it put the giants to flight, who imagined it to be the roar of a mighty wild beast.^[2]

According to Hesiod's Theogony,^[3] Triton dwelt with his parents in a golden palace in the depths of the sea; Homer places his seat in the waters off Aegae.^[4]. The story of the Argonauts places his home on the coast of Libya. When the Argo was driven ashore in the Gulf of Syrtes Minor, the crew carried the vessel to the "Tritonian Lake", Lake Tritonis, whence Triton, the local deity euhemeristically rationalized by Diodorus Siculus as "then ruler over Libya",^[5] welcomed them with a guest-gift of a clod of earth and guided them through the lake's marshy outlet back to the Mediterranean.^[6]

Triton was the father of Pallas and foster parent to the goddess Athena.^[7] Pallas was killed by Athena during a fight between the two goddesses.^[8] Triton is also sometimes cited as the father of Scylla by Lamia. Triton might be multiplied into a host of Tritones, daimones of the sea.

Gold armband with Triton holding a putto, Greek, BCE (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Triton also appeared in Roman myths and epics as the son of Neptune and Salacia. In the Aeneid, Misenus, the trumpeter of Aeneas, challenged Triton to a contest of trumpeting. The god flung him into the sea for his arrogance.

[edit] Tritones

Over time, Triton's name and image came to be associated with a class of merman-like creatures, the Tritones, which could be male or female, and usually formed the escort of marine divinities. Ordinary Tritons were described in detail by the traveller Pausanias (ix. 21).^[9]

When Pausanias visited the city of Triteia in the second century CE, he was told that the name of the city was derived from an eponymous Triteia, a daughter of Triton, and that it claimed to have been founded by her son (with Ares), one among several mythic heroes named Melanippus ("Black Horse").^[10]

[edit] Triton fountains

The figure of a Triton is a natural conception for a fountain, as Romans realized when they came to incorporate fountains in gardens in the first century BCE, Sextus Propertius described "The sound of water which splashes all round the basin, when the Triton suddenly pours forth a fountain from his lips."^[11] Bernini's Fontana del Tritone (1642-43) is a prominent feature of the Roman cityscape.

[edit] Triton since the Renaissance

Among the things named after Triton include Triton, the largest moon of the planet Neptune. This name is appropriate, as Neptune is the Roman name for Triton's father.

In Wordsworth's sonnet "The World is Too Much With Us" (ca 1802, published 1807), the poet regrets the prosaic humdrum modern world, yearning for

glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

Triton is also associated in modern industry with tough, hard-wearing machines such as Ford's Triton Engines and Mitsubishi's Triton pickup trucks.

[edit] In fiction

Triton appears in The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. He helps his father fight against the Titans of the sea, and is very rude to Percy Jackson, who is his half brother.

King Triton as an adaptation, also stars in the 1989 Disney animated film The Little Mermaid as Sea King and ruler of "Atlantica".

Triton appears in the 1968 film Jason and the Argonauts (film). He holds back the base of rocks in a strait that just sunk another ship, thus allowing the Argo to continue on its journey.

[edit] References

^ Ovid, Metamorphoses I.332 ff.
^ Pseudo-Hyginus, Poetical astronomy ii. 23
^ Theogony 930.
^ Iliad xiii. 20.
^ Diodorus iv.56.6.
^ Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, iv. 1552ff
^ Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 3. 144.
^ Apollodorus: Bibliotheca, 3.12.3
^ Pausanius, Description of Greece 9.21.2: "The Tritons have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs not only in color, but also 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, 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, Description of Greece vii.22.8.
^ Propertius, Elegy 2,32, translation by Goold.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Triton

Nereid and Triton Mosaic from Ephesus Terrace Home -2
3D stereoview of Nereid and Triton relief from Apollon Temple in Didim
TheoiProject: Triton Classical references to Triton in English translation

[0] Ovid, Metamorphoses I.332 ff.

[1] Pseudo-Hyginus, Poetical astronomy ii. 23

[2] Theogony 930.

[3] Iliad xiii. 20.

[4] Diodorus iv.56.6.

[5] Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, iv. 1552ff

[6] Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke 3. 144.

[7] Apollodorus: Bibliotheca, 3.12.3

[8] Pausanius, Description of Greece 9.21.2: "The Tritons have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs not only in color, but also 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, 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."

[9] Pausanias, Description of Greece vii.22.8.

[10] Propertius, Elegy 2,32, translation by Goold.

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