page_title: Triton (mythology)
section_title: Renaissance Period
hierarchical_section_title: Triton (mythology) / Renaissance Period
context_page_description: Triton is a Greek god of the sea, the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea respectively. Triton lived with his parents, in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea. Later he was often depicted as having a conch shell he would blow like a trumpet.
  Triton is usually represented as a merman, with the upper body of a human and the tailed lower body of a fish. At some time during the Greek and Roman era, Triton became a generic term for a merman in art and literature. In English literature, Triton is portrayed as the messenger or herald for the god Poseidon.
  Triton of Lake Tritonis of Ancient Libya is a namesake mythical figure that appeared and aided the Argonauts.
context_section_description: Triton was referred to as "trumpeter of Neptune (Neptuni tubicen)" in Cristoforo Landino (d. 1498)'s commentary on Virgil; this phrasing later appeared in the gloss for "Triton" in Marius Nizolius's Thesaurus (1551), and Konrad Gesner's book (1558).
  Triton makes appearance in English literature as the messenger for the god Poseidon. In Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, Triton blew "his trompet shrill before" Neptune and Amphitrite. And in Milton (1637), "Lycidas"  v. 89, "The Herald of the Sea" refers to Triton.
  Gianlorenzo Bernini sculpted the "Neptune and Triton" fountain (1622–23) now in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the  Triton Fountain (1642–43) in Bernini Square, Rome. There is differing opinion on what earlier works he may have drawn from near-contemporary works or examples from antiquity. He may have been influenced by Battista di Domenico Lorenzi's Alpheus and Arethusa (1568–70) or his Triton blowing the conch (late 1570s), or Stoldo Lorenzi's Neptune fountain. But Rudolf Wittkower has cautioned against exaggerating the influences of Florentine fountains. It has been pointed out that Bernini had access to the Papal collection of genuine Greco-Roman sculptures, and worked with restoring ancient fragments, although it is unclear if any Triton was among these. It is within the realm of possibilities that Bernini might have used as his model the ancient Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus, which does include Triton in its composition. The Triton of this altar, the Stoldo Lorenzi Triton and the Bernini Triton are all double-tailed, like a pair of human legs.
caption: The Triton Fountain (1642–3), by Gianlorenzo Bernini, Rome
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