Tritonis

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [triːˈtoː.nɪs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [t̪riˈt̪ɔː.nis]

From Ancient Greek Τρῑτωνίς (Trītōnís), seemingly formed from Τρῑ́των (Trī́tōn) (either the name of a legendary river, or by some accounts, of a lake in Libya) and the feminine noun- and adjective-forming suffix -ῐς, -ῐδος (-ĭs, -ĭdos).

The actual etymology is uncertain. The epithet Tritogeneia (Τρῑτογένειᾰ (Trītogéneiă)) was possibly originally from the root τρῐ́τος (trĭ́tos, “third”).

Trītōnis f sg (genitive Trītōnidos or Trītōnidis); third declension

1. (Greek mythology) epithet of the Greek goddess Athena (identified with Roman Minerva)
   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 6.750:

     est et Athenaeis in moenibus, arcis in ipso / vertice, Palladis ad templum Tritonidis almae, / quo numquam pennis appellunt corpora raucae

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.225–226:

     [...] At gemini lapsu delubra ad summa dracones
     effugiunt saevaeque petunt Tritonidis arcem,

     But the twin serpents with a gliding flee to the highest shrines and seek the citadel of savage Tritonis

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.127:

     is sua iecit humo monitu Tritonidis arma / fraternaeque fidem pacis petiitque deditque

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.548:

     Interea Theseus sociati parte laboris / functus Erectheas Tritonidos ibat ad arces.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 27 CE – 66 CE, Petronius, Satyricon 5.1.9:

     Sed sive armigerae rident Tritonidis arces
     seu Lacedaemonio tellus habitata colono
     Sirenumve domus, det primos versibus annos
     Maeoniumque bibat felici pectore fontem.

     • 1913 translation by Michael Heseltine, W. H. D. Rouse, E. H. Warmington

       But whether the fortress of armoured Tritonis smiles upon him, or the land where the Spartan farmer lives, or the home of the Sirens, let him give the years of youth to poetry, and let his fortunate soul drink of the Maeonian fount.

   • 61 CE – 65 CE, Lucan, Bellum Civile 9.354:

     Hanc, ut fama, deus, quem toto litore pontus
     Audit ventosa perflantem marmora concha,
     Hanc et Pallas amat, patrio quae vertice nata
     Terrarum primam Libyen—nam proxima caelo est,
     Ut probat ipse calor—tetigit, stagnique quieta
     Voltus vidit aqua posuitque in margine plantas
     Et se dilecta Tritonida dixit ab unda.

     • 1928 translation by J. D. Duff

       This lake, as legend tells, is dear to the god, who is heard by all the sea-shore as he fills the waters with the music of his windy shell; and dear to Pallas too. When she was born from her father’s head, she alighted on Libya before any other land; for Libya, as its heat alone proves, is nearest the sky; and there she saw her face in the still water of the pool, and stood by its brink, and called herself Tritonis after the lake she loved.

   • c. 45 CE – 96 CE, Statius, Silvae 2.7.28:

     stridoremque rotae cadentis audis; / quae Tritonide fertilis Athenas / unctis, Baetica, provocas trapetis

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 86 CE – 103 CE, Martial, Epigrammata 4.1.5:

     Hic colat Albano Tritonida multus in auro / Perque manus tantas plurima quercus eat

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. epithet or name of a nymph in Silius Italicus's Punica, mother of the Libyan princess Asbyte and wife to Hiarbas
   • c. 83 CE – 96 CE, Silius Italicus, Punica 2.65:

     Atque is fundarat thalamos Tritonide nympha, / unde genus proavumque Iovem regina ferebat

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Third-declension noun (non-Greek-type or Greek-type, normal variant), singular only.

Trītōnis (genitive Trītōnidis); third-declension one-termination adjective

1. (Greek mythology) of Athena (used as epithet of her namesake city Athens)
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 2.794, ("Tritonida...arcem"):

     Illa deam obliquo fugientem lumine cernens
     murmura parva dedit successurumque Minervae
     indoluit baculumque capit, quod spinea totum
     vincula cingebant, adopertaque nubibus atris,
     quacumque ingreditur, florentia proterit arva
     exuritque herbas et summa cacumina carpit
     adflatuque suo populos urbesque domosque
     polluit et tandem Tritonida conspicit arcem
     ingeniis opibusque et festa pace virentem
     vixque tenet lacrimas, quia nil lacrimabile cernit.

     • 1916 translation by Frank Justus Miller, G. P. Goold

       The hag, eyeing her askance as she flees, mutters awhile, grieving to think on the goddess’ joy of triumph. Then she takes her staff, thick-set with thorns, and, wrapped in a mantle of dark cloud, sets forth. Wherever she goes, she tramples down the flowers, causes the grass to wither, blasts the high waving trees, and taints with the foul pollution of her breath whole peoples, cities, homes. At last she spies Tritonia’s city, splendid with art and wealth and peaceful joy; and she can scarce restrain her tears at the sight, because she sees no cause for others’ tears.

   • 8 CE, Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.645, ("Tritonida...urbem"):

     Hac Arethusa tenus; geminos dea fertilis angues
     curribus admovit frenisque coercuit ora
     et medium caeli terraeque per aera vecta est
     atque levem currum Tritonida misit in urbem
     Triptolemo partimque rudi data semina iussit
     spargere humo, partim post tempora longa recultae.

     • 1916 translation by Frank Justus Miller, G. P. Goold

       With this, Arethusa’s tale was done. Then the goddess of fertility yoked her two dragons to her car, curbing their mouths with the bit, and rode away through the air midway between heaven and earth, until she came at last to Pallas’ city. Here she gave her fleet car to Triptolemus, and bade him scatter the seeds of grain she gave, part in the untilled earth and part in fields that had long lain fallow.

2. of lake Triton
   • c. 83 CE – 96 CE, Silius Italicus, Punica 3.322:

     huc coit aequoreus Nasamon, invadere fluctu
     audax naufragia et praedas avellere ponto;
     huc, qui stagna colunt Tritonidos alta paludis,
     qua virgo, ut fama est, bellatrix edita lympha
     invento primam Libyen perfudit olivo.

     • 1934 translation by J. D. Duff

       Hither came the Nasamones from the sea, men who fear not to attack wrecked ships upon the water, and to snatch their booty from the deep; and hither came the dwellers by the deep pools of Lake Tritonis, where the Maiden Warrior sprang, as legend tells, from the water and anointed Libya, before other lands, with the olive-oil which she herself had discovered.

   • Hyginus, De astronomia 2.12.2.7:

     Perseus, una earum tradente, exceptum in paludem / Tritonida proiecit.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declined the same when used as an adjective or noun. Only used in the feminine.

Trītōnis

1. genitive singular of Trītōn

• “Memphis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Memphis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.