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. 1.4.5.) 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.)