Amphitrite

In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (Ἀμφιτρίτη) was a sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon.^[1] Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became merely the consort of Poseidon, and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea. In Roman mythology, the consort of Neptune, a comparatively minor figure, was Salacia, the goddess of saltwater.^[2]

Mythography

Amphitrite was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (and thus a Nereid), according to Hesiod's Theogony, but of Oceanus and Tethys (and thus an Oceanid), according to Apollodorus, who actually lists her among both the Nereids^[3] and the Oceanids^[4]. Others called her the personification of the sea itself. Amphitrite's offspring included seals ^[5] and dolphins.^[6] Poseidon and Amphitrite had a son, Triton, and a daughter, Rhode (if this Rhode was not actually fathered by Poseidon on Halia or was not the daughter of Asopus as others claim). Apollodorus (3.15.4) also mentions a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite named Benthesikyme.

Amphitrite is not fully personified in the Homeric epics: "out on the open sea, in Amphitrite's breakers" (Odyssey iii.101); she shares her Homeric epithet Halosydne ("sea-nourished")^[7] with Thetis^[8]: in some sense the sea-nymphs are doublets.

Representation and cult

Though Amphitrite does not figure in Greek cultus, at an archaic stage she was of outstanding importance, for in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, she appears at the birthing of Apollo among "all the chiefest of the goddesses, Dione and Rhea and Ichnaea and Themis and loud-moaning Amphitrite." Theseus in the submarine halls of his father Poseidon saw the daughters of Nereus dancing with liquid feet, and "august, ox-eyed Amphitrite", who wreathed him with her wedding wreath, according to a fragment of Bacchylides. Jane Ellen Harrison recognized in the poetic treatment an authentic echo of Amphitrite's early importance: "It would have been much simpler for Poseidon to recognize his own son... the myth belongs to that early stratum of mythology when Poseidon was not yet god of the sea, or, at least, no-wise supreme there— Amphitrite and the Nereids ruled there, with their servants the Tritons. Even so late as the Iliad Amphitrite is not yet 'Neptuni uxor'" [Neptune's wife]"^[9]

"Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite", detail of a vast Roman mosaic from Cirta, now in the Louvre (ca. 315-325 AD).

Amphitrite, "the third one who encircles [the sea]"^[10], was so entirely confined in her authority to the sea and the creatures in it that she was almost never associated with her husband, either for purposes of worship or in works of art, except when he was to be distinctly regarded as the god who controlled the sea. An exception may be the cult image of Amphitrite that Pausanias saw in the temple of Poseidon at the Isthmus of Corinth (ii.1.7).

The widely respected Pindar, in his sixth Olympian Ode, recognized Poseidon's role as "great god of the sea, husband of Amphitrite, goddess of the golden spindle." For later poets, Amphitrite became simply a metaphor for the sea: Euripides, in Cyclops (702) and Ovid, Metamorphoses, (i.14).

Eustathius said that Poseidon first saw her dancing at Naxos among the other Nereids,^[11] and carried her off.^[12] But in another version of the myth, she fled from his advances to Atlas,^[13] at the farthest ends of the sea; there the dolphin of Poseidon sought her through the islands of the sea, and finding her, spoke persuasively on behalf of Poseidon, if we may believe Hyginus^[14] and was rewarded by being placed among the stars as the constellation Delphinus.^[15]

Neptune and Amphitrite by 16th-century Dutch artist Jacob de Gheyn II

In the arts of vase-painting and mosaic, Amphitrite was distinguishable from the other Nereids only by her queenly attributes. In works of art, both ancient ones and post-Renaissance paintings, Amphitrite is represented either enthroned beside Poseidon or driving with him in a chariot drawn by sea-horses (hippocamps) or other fabulous creatures of the deep, and attended by Tritons and Nereids. She is dressed in queenly robes and has nets in her hair. The pincers of a crab are sometimes shown attached to her temples.

Amphitrite's legacy

Amphitrite on 1936 Australian stamp commemorating completion of submarine telephone cable to Tasmania

• Amphitrite is the name of a genus of the worm family Terebellidae.
• In poetry, Amphitrite's name is often used for the sea, as a synonym of Thalassa.
• Seven ships of the Royal Navy were named HMS Amphitrite.
• At least one ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy was named HM Amphitrite (corvette, in service 1830s).
• Three ships of the United States Navy were named USS Amphitrite.
• An asteroid, 29 Amphitrite, is named for her.

Cadets paying a traditional visit to Amphitrite at US Merchant Marine Academy Kings Point

• In 1936 Australia used an image of Amphitrite on a postage stamp as a classical allusion for the submarine communications cable across Bass Strait from Apollo Bay, Victoria to Stanley, Tasmania.
• The name of the former Greek Royal Yacht.
• Amphitrite Pool, a shallow ceremonial pool on the grounds of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York contains a statue of Amphitrite. When First Classmen are taking their Third Mate or Third Assistant Engineer License Examinations, it is considered good luck if they bounce a coin off Amphitrite into a seashell at her feet.
• Amphitrite is featured in a puzzle in the Playstation 2 game God of War as Poseidon's faithful wife, in which a statue of her is pointing towards the solution to the puzzle, the exit of the room.

Notes

References

• Theoi.com: Amphitrite: a repertory of Greek and Latin quotes, in translation.
• Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology: "Halosydne" and "Amphitrite"