Triton

Triton was a sea god, the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, who lived with his parents in a golden house at the bottom of the sea. Later writers show him with a man’s upper body and a fish’s tail, blowing a conch shell to calm or raise the waves. The name was also given to a whole class of similar sea beings, the Tritons.

Triton’s Parents and Home

Hesiod says that from Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker was born great Triton, “wide-ruling”, who owns the depths of the sea and lives with his dear mother and his lord father in their golden house, “an awful god” (Hesiod, Theogony 930–933). In Apollonius’ Argonautica Triton himself says that his father Poseidon had made him well acquainted with this sea (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.1558–1559).

Triton’s Appearance

In the Argonautica Triton is first seen as a youth and then rises from the depths in his true shape. His body from the head to the waist is like that of the blessed gods, but below the sides a sea monster’s tail stretches out, forked on either side, with spines that part into curved fins like the horns of the new moon (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.1602–1616). Virgil describes a huge Triton as the figurehead of an Etruscan ship, frightening the sea with his blue conch; the front of the swimming figure is that of a man, hairy to the flanks, while his belly ends in a sea beast (Virgil, Aeneid 10.209–212). Pausanias describes the Tritons he saw as having hair like marsh frogs, a body rough with fine scales, gills under the ears, a man’s nose, a broad mouth with a beast’s teeth, and a tail like a dolphin’s under the breast and belly (Pausanias 9.21.1). Several Tritons are shown on the Isthmian temple of Poseidon and at the throne at Amyclae, which has Tritons on one side (Pausanias 2.1.7, 3.18.10).

Triton in Myth

The Conch

In Ovid, when Jupiter decides to end the Flood, Neptune calls the sea-blue Triton, who rises from the deep with shoulders covered in natural purple shell, and tells him to blow his resounding conch and recall the waters and rivers with the signal (Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.330–342). Virgil has Triton, together with Cymothoe, push Aeneas’ ships off a reef (Aeneid 1.144–145), and says that Triton, jealous of the Trojan trumpeter Misenus, who had dared to challenge the gods in song, drowned him among the rocks (Aeneid 6.171–174).

Triton and the Argonauts

When the Argo was carried to Lake Tritonis in Libya, the heroes could not find the way out to the sea. On Orpheus’ advice they set Apollo’s tripod on the shore as an offering, and Triton appeared as a young man, called himself Eurypylus, and gave Euphemus a clod of earth as a stranger’s gift. He then pointed out the channel to the sea, took the tripod and vanished into the lake. After Jason sacrificed a sheep, he rose in his true form, took hold of the Argo’s keel and guided her out to the sea (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.1547–1619). Later Euphemus dreamed that the clod became a maiden of Triton’s race, and Jason explained the dream: if Euphemus cast the clod into the sea, it would become an island where his descendants would live. The island was Calliste, later called Thera (Apollonius, Argonautica 4.1731–1764). Herodotus tells a version in which Jason is driven to Libya and the Tritonian lake, Triton appears to him, takes the tripod and shows the way out (Herodotus 4.179).

Triton and Athena

Apollodorus says that when Athena was born she was brought up by Triton, who had a daughter, Pallas (Apollodorus, Library 3.12.3). Pausanias reports the Libyan belief that Athena is the daughter of Poseidon and Lake Tritonis (Pausanias 1.14.6), and he reports that some say Ares loved Triteia, a daughter of Triton and priestess of Athena, who bore Melanippus (Pausanias 7.22.8).

The Triton of Tanagra

At Tanagra, Pausanias says, the women went to the sea to purify themselves before the rites of Dionysus, and a Triton attacked them while they were swimming. They prayed to Dionysus, and the god overcame the Triton in a fight (Pausanias 9.20.4).

Triton Sources

Hesiod, Theogony 930–933; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.1547–1619, 4.1731–1764; Herodotus 4.179; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.330–342; Virgil, Aeneid 1.144–145, 6.171–174, 10.209–212; Apollodorus, Library 3.12.3; Pausanias 1.14.6, 2.1.7, 3.18.10, 7.22.8, 9.20.4, 9.21.1.

See Also: Poseidon, Amphitrite, Athena, Argonauts, Dionysus, Nereids