Triton (mythology) Triton (mythology) Triton (; "Tritōn") is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea respectively, and is herald for his father. He is usually represented as a merman which has the upper body of a human and the tail, soft dorsal fin, spiny dorsal fin, anal fin, pelvic fins and caudal fin of a fish, "sea-hued", according to Ovid "his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells". Like his father, Poseidon, he carried a trident. However, Triton's special attribute was a twisted conch shell, on which he blew
Trident of Poseidon Trident of Poseidon The trident of Poseidon and his Roman equivalent, Neptune, has been their traditional divine attribute featured in many ancient depictions. In Hesiod's account, Poseidon's trident was crafted by the three Cyclopes. According to Robert Graves, however, both Poseidon's trident and Zeus' thunderbolt were originally a sacred labrys, but later distinguished from each other when Poseidon became god of the sea, while Zeus claimed the right to the thunderbolt. In another view shared by Friedrich Wieseler, E. M. W. Tillyard and several other researchers, Poseidon's trident is a fish spear, typical for coast-dwelling Greeks. In that sense it