Bident A bident is a two - pronged implement resembling a pitchfork . In classical mythology , the bident is associated with Pluto , the ruler of the underworld , while the three - pronged trident is the implement of Poseidon ( Neptune ) , ruler of the sea and of earthquakes . Etymology . The word ' bident ' was brought into the English language before 1914 , and is derived from the Latin " bidentis " , meaning " having two prongs " . Historical uses . Ancient Egyptians used a bident as a fishing tool , sometimes attached to a line and sometimes fastened with flight feathers . Two - pronged weapons mainly of bronze appear in the archaeological record of ancient Greece . In Roman agriculture , the " bidens " ( genitive " bidentis " ) was a double - bladed drag hoe or two - pronged mattock , although a modern distinction between " mattock " and " rake " should not be pressed . It was used to break up and turn ground that was rocky and hard . The " bidens " is pictured on mosaic s and other forms of Roman art , as well as tombstones to mark the occupation of the deceased . In mythology . Neither Pluto nor Hades is depicted unambiguously with a bident in ancient art , and the antiquity of this attribute has never been determined . Two - pronged weapons do appear in Greek literature and art . The spear of Achilles is said by a few sources to be bifurcated . Achilles had been instructed in its use by Peleus , who had in turn learned from Chiron the Centaur . The implement may have associations with Thessaly . A black - figured amphora from Corneto ( Etruscan Tarquinia ) depicts a scene from the hunt for the Calydonian boar , part of a series of adventures that took place in the general area . Peleus is accompanied by Castor , who is attacking the boar with a two - pronged spear . A bronze trident found in an Etruscan tomb at Vetulonia seems to have had an adaptable center prong that could be removed for use as a bident . A kylix found at Vulci in ancient Etruria was formerly interpreted as depicting Pluto ( Greek " Plouton " ) with a bident . A black - bearded man holding a peculiarly two - pronged instrument reaches out in pursuit of a woman , thought to be Persephone . The vase was subjected to improper reconstruction , however , and the couple are more likely Poseidon and Aethra . On Lydian coins that show " Plouton " abducting Persephone in his four - horse chariot , the god holds his characteristic scepter , the ornamented point of which has sometimes been interpreted as a bident . Other visual representations of the bident on ancient objects appear to have been either modern - era reconstructions , or in the possession of figures not securely identified as the ruler of the underworld . The Cambridge ritualist A . B . Cook saw the bident as an implement that might be wielded by Jupiter , the chief god of the Roman pantheon , in relation to Roman bidental ritual , the consecration of a place struck by lightning by means of a sacrificial sheep , called a " bidens " because it was of an age to have two teeth . In the hands of Jupiter ( also known as Jove , Etruscan Tinia ) , the trident or bident thus represents a forked lightning bolt . In ancient Italy , thunder and lightning were read as signs of divine will , wielded by the sky god Jupiter in three forms or degrees of severity ( see " manubia " ) . The Romans drew on Etruscan traditions for the interpretation of these signs . A tile found at Urbs Salvia in Picenum depicts an unusual composite Jove , " fairly bristling with weapons " : a lightning bolt , a bident , and a trident , uniting the realms of sky , earth , and sea , and representing the three degrees of ominous lightning ( see also Summanus ) . Cook regarded the trident as the Greek equivalent of the Etruscan bident , each representing a type of lightning used to communicate the divine will ; since he accepted the Lydian origin of the Etruscans , he traced both forms to the same Mesopotamia source . The later notion that the ruler of the underworld wielded a trident or bident can perhaps be traced to a line in the " Hercules Furens " ( " Hercules Enraged " ) of Seneca . Dis ( the Roman equivalent of Greek " Plouton " ) uses a three - pronged spear to drive off Hercules as he attempts to invade the underworld . Seneca also refers to Dis as the " Infernal Jove " or the " dire Jove " , the Jove who gives dire or ill omens " ( dirae ) " , just as in the Greek tradition , " Plouton " is sometimes identified as a " chthonic Zeus . " That the trident and bident might be somewhat interchangeable is suggested by a Byzantine scholiast , who mentions Poseidon being armed with a bident . In art . In Western art of the Middle Ages , classical underworld figures began to be depicted with a pitchfork . Early Christian writers identified the classical underworld with Hell , and its denizens as demons or devils . In the Renaissance , the bident became a conventional attribute of Pluto in art . Pluto , with Cerberus at his side , is shown holding the bident in the mythological ceiling mural painted by Raphael ' s workshop for the Villa Farnesina ( the " Loggia di Psiche , " 1517 – 18 ) . In a scene depicting a council of the gods , the three brothers Jove , Pluto , and Neptune are grouped closely , with a Cupid standing before them . Neptune holds the trident . Elsewhere in the " loggia " , a putto holds a bident . Perhaps influenced by this work , Agostino Carracci had depicted Pluto with a bident in a preparatory drawing for his painting " Pluto " ( 1592 ) , in which the god holds instead his characteristic key . In Caravaggio ' s " Giove , Nettuno e Plutone " ( ca . 1597 ) , a ceiling mural based on alchemical allegory , it is Neptune who holds the bident .