"_Triton, who boasts his high Neptunian race
Sprung from the God by Salace's embrace._"
CAMOËNS, "Lusiad."
"_Triton his trumpet shrill before them blew
For goodly triumph and great jolliment
That made the rocks to roar as they were rent._"
SPENSER, "Faerie Queen."
(Procession of the Sea Deities.)
[Illustration: Merman or Triton.]
[Illustration: Triton, with two tails. German.]
Triton was the only son of Neptune and Amphitrite. The poet Apollonius
Rhodius describes him as having the upper parts of the body of a man,
while the lower parts were those of a dolphin. Later poets and artists
revelled in the conception of a whole race of similar tritons, who were
regarded as a wanton, mischievous tribe, like the satyrs on land. Glaucus,
another of the inferior deities, is represented as a triton, rough and
shaggy in appearance, his body covered with mussels and seaweed; his hair
and beard show that luxuriance which characterises sea-gods. Proteus, as
shepherd of the seas, is usually distinguished with a crook. Triton, as
herald of Neptune, is represented always holding, or blowing, his wreathed
horn or conch shell. His mythical duties as attendant on the supreme
sea-divinity would, as an emblem in heraldry, imply a similar duty or
office in the bearer to a great naval hero.
[Illustration: Mermaid and Triton supporters.]
EXAMPLES.--The City of Liverpool has for sinister supporter a _Triton
blowing a conch shell and holding a flag in his right hand_.
Lord Lyttelton bears for supporters _two Mermen proper, in their exterior
hands a trident or_.
Ottway, Bart.--Supporters on either side, _a Triton blowing his shell
proper, navally crowned or, across the shoulder a wreath of red coral, and
holding in the exterior hand a trident, point downward_.
_Note._--In classic story, Triton and the Siren are distinct poetic
creations, their vocation and attributes being altogether at variance--no
relationship whatever existing between them. According to modern popular
notions, however, the siren or mermaid, and triton, or merman as they
sometimes term him, appear to be viewed as male and female of the same
creature (in heraldic parlance baron and femme). They thus appear in
companionship as supporters to the arms of Viscount Hood, and similarly in
other achievements.
[Illustration]