Tritones 3 - a medley and mix

#tritons #hippocampoi #seahorses #ichthyocentaurs

I've shown you in prior posts the oldest #GREEK depictions of #Tritons show an eel like body with fins but no forelegs

#hippocampi or #seahorses were depicted with similar eel like finned bodies.

The Romans evolved this further probably from lost hellenistic works

This work has tritones has with snaky eeel like tails and small forelegs 

however in this work the Triton has forefins !

though the Romans don't seemed to have been able to decide on a definite form 

Horses' forelegs and fins !

Why the wavering between forms ?

Note the sea horse above 

I think someone decided to combine seahorses with tritons leading to ichthyocentaurs !

Triton,Hippocampi, and other Marine Chimera - Two

#Triton #Hippocampus #hippocampi

These are some of  the earliest renderings of Triton I could find.

Heracles wrestling Triton whose body is a blend of eel and fish.

Triton carrying a boy accompanied by a dolphin

Note again the almost snake like lower body

note again the long body 

now look at this image of Poseidon with a  seahorse

a tritons body with a horse'd forelegs and head 

and this Roman Mosaic of a Sea Horse / Hippocampus 

Next time Tritons become Ichthyocentaurs

Triton, Hippocampoi, and other Marine Chimeras - One

Someone on #Classicstwitter was asking about #Ichthyocentaurs. This Roman example while labelled a Triton is very similar to an Ichthyocentaur 

Here's another example !

So how as a visual art theme did the snake or eel bodied Tritons we see on Greek ceramics become these chimeras of three creatures?

Starting with Early depictions I will show over the next couple of posts how I think it happened.

Note this image features tritons and hippocampoi - merhorses! 

I think someone decided to fuse both which I'll discuss in greater detail next time ! 

LEFT IS BEST AND BETTER

#classicalgreek #left #aristeros

LEFT IS BEST AND BETTER

There are 2 words that I know of that are translated as LEFT into ENGLISH

One is Laios cognate to Latin laevus and the other is ARISTEROS

I've given it the feminine form here but more importantly look at the structure and see how odd it is?

ARISTOS acts as the superlative to AGATHOS but here we have a suffix used to mark comparative forms - teros attached to  ...its like who coined this was trying to say lefthanded was NOT unlucky or a kind of weakness but BETTER THAN THE BEST !