Triton (mythology)

Fontana del Moro, in Rome, Italy

Triton (/tɾiˈton/; Greek: Τρίτων Tritōn) is a Greek god of the sea, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea, respectively. Triton lived with his parents, in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea. He is often depicted with a conch shell that he blows like a trumpet.

Triton is usually depicted with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a fish (the male equivalent of mermaids). Sometime during the Greek and Roman era, Triton became a generic term for a fish-man in art and literature. In English literature, Triton is portrayed as a messenger or herald of the god Poseidon. Triton of Lake Triton of Ancient Libya is a mythical figure of the same name who appeared and aided the Argonauts.

Sea god

Triton was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite according to Hesiod's Theogony. He was the ruler (owner) of the depths of the sea, which is 'terrible'. or "mighty" (δεινός) according to the epithet Hesiod gave him. Triton lived with his parents in golden underwater palaces. It has been pointed out that the golden palace of Poseidon was located in Aegas (Euboea) in a passage from Homer's Iliad. 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 upper half is presented in a human figure.. Triton in later times was associated with the possession of a conch shell, which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves. He was trumpeter and cornet player »for« Ocean and Poseidon. The sound of it was so cacophonous that, when it blew itself out loud, it sent the giants fleeing, who imagined it as the roar of a dark wild beast. Triton carries a trident in Lucius Accius's Medea. Triton is described as "sea-coloured", according to Ovid "his shoulders hooded with seashells". Ovid actually here calls Triton cerulean in color (Latin, cæruleus). Ovid also describes with this color, other deities, such as Proteus, Aegeon and Doris, with green hair (viridis), as well as Triton's horses.

Libyan river god

There's also Triton, the ancient Libyan god of Lake Tritonis found by the Argonauts. This Triton is treated as a separate deity in some references. He was of a different parentage, as his father was Poseidon, but his mother was Europa, according to the Greek writers of this episode. This Triton first appeared in the guise of Eurypylus before revealing his divine nature. This local deity has been euhemeristically rationalized as "then ruler over Libya" by Diodorus Siculus. Triton-Eurypylus welcomed the Argonauts with a guest gift of a clod of earth which was a promise that the Greeks would be granted the land of Cyrene, Libya in the future. The Argo had been driven ashore in the Syrtes (Gulf of Lesser Syrtes according to some), and Triton guided them through the lake's marshy outlet back into the Mediterranean. One of the works that recounts this adventure is Apollonius of the Rhodian Argonautics (3rd century BC), the first work in written literature to describe a Triton as a "fish tail".

Triton with men and heroes

In Virgil's Aeneid, book 6, Triton is said to have killed Misenus, son of Aeolus, by drowning him after he challenged the gods to play as well as he did. Heracles' fight with Triton is a common theme in classical Greek art, particularly black-figure pottery, but no literature telling the story survives. In fewer examples, Greek pottery apparently depicting the same motif is labeled "Nereo" or "Old man of the sea", and among these, the fight of Nereus with Heracles is attested in literature. "Old Man of the Sea" is a generic term applicable to Nereus, who was also frequently described as half a fish. One explanation is that some vase painters developed the convention of representing Nereus as a fully human form, so Triton had to be substituted in the depiction of the fighting Heracles, a sea monster. And Nereo appears as a spectator in some examples of this motif. In the red-figure period, the Triton-Heracles theme went completely out of fashion, supplanted by scenes like Theseus' adventures in Poseidon's golden mansion, embellished with the presence of Triton. Again, the extant literature describing the adventure omits any mention of Triton, but Triton's placement in the scene is not implausible.

Offspring

According to Apolonio de Rodas, Triton married the Libyan Oceanid, associated with the homonymous region. They were the parents of several nymphs, one of them being Pallas, companion of the goddess Athena. In this story, according to the Library of Pseudo-Apolodoro, Athena is considered an adoptive daughter of Triton (one of her epithets was Τριτογένεια, "Daughter of Triton"), possibly because she was the pupil of Triton and from the nymphs of Libya during his youth by Lake Tritonis, or because, according to another version, Zeus was there when Athena sprang from his head. Another daughter of the god was Trithea, in honor of which, according to the writings of Pausanias in the second century AD. C., the homonymous city was named, founded by the son of this nymph together with Ares, Melanipo ("Black Horse").

Newts

Sometime during the Greco-Roman period, "Tritons," in the plural, became a generic term for the merman.

Hellenistic art and Roman art

Greek pottery depicting a half-human, half-fish being with an inscription of "Triton" It is popular in the 6th century BC. C. It has also been hypothesized that then "Triton" It would have become a generic term. Furthermore, mermen in groups, and even in multitudes, began to be depicted in classical Greek art around the 4th century BCE. Among these is the work of the Greek sculptor Scopas (d. 350 BC) who was later transferred to Rome. Although not a contemporary inscription or commentary, Pliny (d. 79 CE) commented on the work that "there are Nereids riding dolphins and also Tritons" in this sculpture.

In Greek periods after the Roman period, newts were depicted as ichthyocentaurs, that is, newts with the forelegs of a horse instead of arms. The earliest known examples are from the 2nd century BCE. C. The term "Ichthyocentaur" it did not originate in ancient Greece, and only appeared in writing in the Byzantine period (12th century); "Centaur-Triton" is another word for a horse-legged Newt. In addition to examples where the horse-like forelimbs have been replaced by wings, there are other examples where the front feet have several clawed toes (something like lions), such as on a relief in the Glyptotek in Munich., Germany. A Triton with a lower extremity like a lobster or crayfish has also been mentioned, in a fresco unearthed from Herculaneum. Double-tailed newts also began to be depicted at some point. It occurs on the Altar of Domitius Enobarbus (late 2nd century BC), and Rumpf thought it might be the first example of a "Triton with two fish tails (Triton mit zwei Fischschwänzen)". However, the double-tailed newts on the Damophon sculptures at Licosura predate, and it is even doubted that this is the earliest example. Lattimore believed that the two-tailed newt must be dated to the 4th century BCE. C. and speculated that Skopas was the one who devised it. There is also the female version of the half human, half fish, which can be called "tritona" or "female newt". Much like the current conception of a mermaid.

Literature in the Roman Period

The first literary attestation of Tritones (Latin: Tritones) in the plural was Virgil's Aeneid (c. 29-19 BC). In the first century AD. C., another Latin poet Valerius Flaccus wrote in Aeronautics that there was a huge Triton on each side of Neptune's chariot, which held the reins of the horses. And Statius (1st century) has a figurehead of Triton adorn the prow of the Argo. Trions and Nereids appear as marine retinues (Latin: marinum obsequium) for the goddess Venus in the Metamorphoses of Apuleius, or "The Golden Ass" 3. 4;.

Pausanias

Newts (Greek: Τρίτωνες, Tritones) were described in detail in the 2nd century CE. c. by Pausanias (ix. 21). "The Newts have the following appearance. On their heads hair grows like that of marsh frogs (Greek: βατράχιον, plants of the genus Ranunculus) not only in color, but also in the impossibility of separating one hair from another. The rest of its body is rough with fine scales just like the shark. Below the ears they have gills and a man's nose; but the mouth is wider and the teeth are those of a beast. Their eyes seem blue to me, and they have hands, fingers and nails like the shells of the murex. Under the chest and belly is a tail like a dolphin instead of feet". Pausanias based his descriptions of it on a headless Triton exhibited at Tanagra and other curiosities in Rome. These Tritons were either preserved mummies or real animals or taxidermied humans (or fabrications made to appear as such). The Tanagra Triton was seen by Elián who described it as an embalmed or pickled mummy (Greek: τάριχος). While Pausanias related a legend around the Tanagra Newt that its head was severed, J.G. Frazer surmised that such a cover story had to be invented after the carcass of a marine mammal with a mutilated or severely mutilated head impersonated a Triton.

Renaissance period

In the Triton Fountain (1642–3), by Gianlorenzo Bernini, Rome, Triton was referred to as "Neptune's trumpeter (Neptuni tubicen)" in the commentary of Cristoforo Landino (died in 1498) on Virgil; this phrase later appeared in the gloss of "Triton" in Marius Nizolius's Thesaurus (1551), and Konrad Gesner's book (1558). Triton appears in English literature as the messenger of the god Poseidon. In Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, Triton blew "his shrill trumpet of him before Neptune and Amphitrite." And in Milton (1637), "The Herald of the Sea" refers to Triton. Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted the fountain "Neptune and Triton" (1622–23) now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Triton Fountain (1642–43) in Bernini Square, Rome. There are different opinions about the earlier works that he may have drawn from nearly contemporary works or examples from antiquity. He may have been influenced by Battista di Domenico Lorenzi's (1568-1570) Alphaeus and Arethusa or his Triton Blowing the Conch Shell (late 1570s), or Stoldo Lorenzi's Fountain of Neptune. But Rudolf Wittkower has warned against exaggerating the influences of Florentine sources. It has been noted that Bernini had access to the papal collection of genuine Greco-Roman sculptures, and worked with the restoration of ancient fragments, although it is not clear whether Triton was among these. Bernini could have used as a model the ancient Altar of Domitius Enobarbus, which includes Triton in its composition. The Triton on this altar, the Stoldo Lorenzi Triton, and the Bernini Triton are all double-tailed, like a pair of human legs.

Victorian Age

In Wordsworth's sonnet "The world is too much for us" (c. 1802, published 1807), the poet laments the mundane modern world,

In popular culture

King Triton is a character depicted in Disney's The Little Mermaid, inspired by Triton, as an underwater king, the father of the main character. In The Little Mermaid, Triton has seven daughters for the Seven Seas, the youngest named Ariel, of whom he is very overprotective. However, this character (and all the others in the Disney movie) are based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale.

Pet

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

• University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California

• Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida

• Edmonds Community College, Lynnwood, Washington

• Iowa Central Community College, Fort Dodge, Iowa

• Mariner High School, Cabo 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 Triton symbol.

Eponyms

The largest moon of the planet Neptune was named Triton, as Neptune is the Roman equivalent of Poseidon.

A family of large sea snails, whose shells have been used as trumpets since ancient times, are commonly known as "tritons," see Triton (gastropod).

The name Triton is associated in modern industry with rugged machines like the Ford Triton engine and the Mitsubishi Triton pickup truck.