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"...
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（Τρίτων).
1. A son of Poseidon and Amphitrite (or Celaeno), who dwelt
with his father and mother in a golden palace on the bottom
of the sea, or according to Homer (Hom. Il. 13.20) at Aegae.
(lies. Theog. 930, &c.; Apollod. 1.4.6.) Later writers
describe this divinity of the Mediterranean as riding over
the sea on horses or other sea-monsters. (Ov. Heroid. vii.
.50; Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1.28; Claudian, 28.378.) Sometimes
also Tritons are mentioned in the plural, and as serving
other marine divinities in riding over the sea. Their
appearance is differently described, though they are always
conceived as presenting the human figure in the upper part
of their bodies, while the lower part is that of a fish.
Pausanias (9.21.1) says : the Tritons have green hair on
their head, very fine and hard scales, breathing organs
below their ears, a human nose, a broad month, with the
teeth of animals, sea-green eyes, hands rough like the
surface of a shell, and instead of feet, a tail like that of
dolphins. (Comp. Orph, Hymn 23. 4 ; Plin. Nat. 36.4, 7.) The
chief characteristic of Tritons in poetry as well as in
works of art is a trumpet consisting of a shell (concha),
which the Tritons blow at the command of Poseidon, to soothe
the restless waves of the sea (Ov. Met. 1.333), and in the
fight of the Gigantes this trumpet served to frighten the
enemies. (Hygin. Poet. Astr. 2.23; comp. Paus. 8.2.3; Mosch.
2.20; Verg. A. 10.209, &c.; Ov. Met. 2.8; Plin. Nat. 9.5.)
Tritons were sometimes represented with two horse's feet
instead of arms, and they were then called Centaur-Tritons
or Ichthyocentaurs. (Tzetz. ad Lyc. 34, 886, 892.) Their
figures are frequently mentioned in works of art, as in the
sanctuary of Poseidon on the Corinthian isthmus (Paus.
2.1.7), in the temple of Dionysus at Tanagra (9.20.4; comp.
Aelian, Ael. NA 13.21), in the pediment of the temple of
Saturn at Rome. (Macr. 1.8; comp. Hirt, Mythol. Bilderb. p.
152; Müller, Anc. Art. and its Rem. § 402.) 2. The god of
like Tritonis in Libya, is, like Glaucus, a marine divinity
connected with the story of the Argonauts. (Apollon. 4.1552,
&c. ; Orph. Argon. 337; Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 34, 754 ; Hdt.
4.179.) - A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and
mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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