Triton (mythology)

Triton shown in a carving from about 470 BC

Triton was the son of Poseidon, the sea god, in Greek mythology. He acted as Poseidon's messenger. He had the ability to make the seas calm by blowing on a conch shell. He is shown in Greek art as having the body of a man and a fish tail, like a mermaid. Sometimes he is shown with arms like the claws of a crab, at other times he has arms like a horse's legs. He lived in a golden palace at the bottom of the ocean.

Sometimes Triton was shown as being many people, known as Tritones.

The planet Neptune's moon, Triton, was named after the god.

Triton (mythology) Media

• 

  Triton blowing a conch. Statue at Wasserspiele Hellbrunn, Hellbrunn Palace, Salzburg, Austria

• 

  Relief of Triton from a pillar in the Odeon of Agrippa in the Ancient Agora of Athens, Greece.

• 

  Attic black-figure hydria attributed to the Rycroft Painter, dating c. 520–c. 510 BCE, depicting Heracles wrestling Triton, Eskenazi Museum of Art

• 

  Tritoness bronze applique, Greek, 2nd century BC, Cleveland Museum of Art

• 

  Cameo of Augustus in a quadriga drawn by tritons (Kunsthistorisches Museum)

• 

  The Triton Fountain (1642–3), by Gianlorenzo Bernini, Rome