Amphitrite

Also Known As: Greek Ἀμφιτρίτη; the wife of Poseidon, a Nereid in Hesiod’s Theogony, also listed as a daughter of Ocean in the Library of Apollodorus
Region/Culture: Southern Europe
Mythos: Greek Mythology
Primary Type/Nature: Gods and Deities
Mythical Attributes: A sea nymph raised to queen of the sea by her marriage to Poseidon, she was said to breed the numberless beasts of the deep and, with two of her sisters, to calm the waves.
Role in Mythos: She is Poseidon’s consort and the mother of Triton, and in the Odyssey her name stands for the open sea itself.
Relation to Humans: For the sailors of the Odyssey she is the roaring water and the mother of the creatures Scylla snatches from it. She was worshipped beside Poseidon on Tenos from the late fourth century BCE, and at the Isthmus of Corinth she stood with him in gold and ivory on a chariot dedicated in the second century CE.

Off the headlands in the Odyssey, the sea has a woman’s name. Telemachus, not knowing whether his father died on land or at sea, wonders if Odysseus went down among the waves of Amphitrite. Circe warns of beetling crags where the great wave of dark-eyed Amphitrite roars, and of Scylla in her cave, fishing for dolphins and dogfish and whatever larger beast she can catch, such creatures as deep-moaning Amphitrite rears in multitudes past counting. In Homer that is nearly all she is. A name for salt water, a sound in the dark, a womb for monsters.

The poets who came after gave her a family and a husband. Hesiod’s Theogony places her among the fifty daughters of Nereus, the old man of the sea, and Doris, a daughter of Ocean. In his catalogue of the sisters she has a small job: with Cymodoce and Cymatolege she easily calms the waves upon the misty sea. Later in the poem comes the promotion that made her famous. Of Amphitrite and the loud-roaring Earth-Shaker, Hesiod says, was born great, wide-ruling Triton, who lives with his mother and his father in their golden house in the depths. The mythographer known as Apollodorus could not quite decide where she came from. His Library lists her once among the daughters of Nereus and once among the daughters of Ocean and Tethys, and when he marries her to Poseidon he calls her a daughter of Ocean. He gives the couple Triton and a daughter, Rhode, who married the Sun, and elsewhere a second daughter, Benthesicyme.

Jennifer Larson, writing in Les Études classiques in 2019, argues that Hesiod took an older, half-personified sea goddess and fitted her into a tidier world in which each of the three sons of Kronos had his own realm and his own palace. A king of the sea needed a queen. Amphitrite got the post. The Iliad, which names a whole crowd of Nereids, never mentions her at all.

How she came to accept the job is told in the star lore. Hyginus, citing Eratosthenes, explains why there is a dolphin in the sky. When Neptune, the Roman name he uses for Poseidon, wanted to marry Amphitrite, she wanted to stay a virgin, and she fled to Atlas. Poseidon sent searchers after her. One of them, a dolphin, wandered among the islands until he found her, talked her round, and took charge of the wedding himself. Poseidon set the dolphin’s shape among the constellations as a thank-you, and Hyginus adds that sculptors of the god put a dolphin in his hand or under his foot because they think it pleases him. The dolphin got a constellation. The bride got a husband who had sent a search party.

Her best scene belongs to Theseus. Bacchylides, a lyric poet of the fifth century BCE, puts him on the ship carrying the Athenian youths and girls to Crete. Minos makes a move on one of the girls, Theseus objects, and Minos mocks his claim to be Poseidon’s son, flinging a gold ring into the sea and daring him to bring it back from his father’s house. Theseus jumps. The Athenian youths weep from the deck as the ship runs on before the north wind.

Dolphins carry him down to the hall of his father. There the daughters of Nereus are dancing, and the light coming off their limbs is like fire. Amphitrite, august and ox-eyed, wraps him in a purple cloak and sets on his curly hair a flawless wreath, dark with roses, which Aphrodite had given her on her own wedding day. Then Theseus surfaces beside the ship with its slender stern, and the sea has not even wet him. Pausanias saw the same story painted by Micon on a wall of the sanctuary of Theseus at Athens, where the hero comes back with the ring and a gold crown that Amphitrite gave him. Larson reads the episode simply: Theseus is treated as family, and Amphitrite, above all else, is what Hesiod made her, the bride of Poseidon.

Nobody describes her body. The poets give her eyes, dark or ox-like, and the painters give her a place at her husband’s side. On the Sophilos dinos in the British Museum, painted around 580 to 570 BCE, the gods drive in procession to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and in the second chariot, after Zeus and Hera, ride Poseidon and Amphitrite. Votive clay plaques from Penteskouphia near Corinth, of the seventh and sixth centuries BCE, show the pair together, and their painted labels call her the akoitis, the wedded wife, of Poseidon. The Homeric Hymn to Apollo seats her among the great goddesses who wait nine days with Leto on Delos, loud-moaning Amphitrite beside Dione, Rhea, Ichnaea and Themis.

Her worship clung to his. On Tenos a sanctuary of Poseidon and Amphitrite stood at Kionia, about three kilometres west of the modern town, close to the sea and to good water; the Greek Ministry of Culture dates its founding to the end of the fourth century BCE and its abandonment to the middle of the third century CE, and the French School at Athens excavated it. At the Isthmus of Corinth, Pausanias saw in the fore-temple of Poseidon two statues of the god, one of Amphitrite, and a bronze Sea. Inside stood the gift of Herodes the Athenian: four gilded horses with ivory hoofs, two gold Tritons ivory below the waist, and on the car Amphitrite and Poseidon in ivory and gold, with the boy Palaemon standing upright on a dolphin. Larson points out that all of the Isthmian evidence is late, and that the idea of the cult starting there has no support in the ground.

What she can do is quiet and vast. She calms waves. She breeds the sea monsters and the lesser beasts that Scylla eats, and she keeps a house under the sea where heroes may be clothed and crowned and sent back up dry. Her gifts carry proof: a cloak and a wreath that settle, in front of the whole ship, whose son Theseus is.

Her limits are those of the post she was given. She could flee, but a dolphin found her. Her rank among the Olympians came and went with the setting, as Larson puts it: she rides in the wedding processions of the vase painters, yet the twelve gods on the Parthenon’s east frieze do without her. Homer never tells a story about her. Almost every tale she appears in is really about someone else, a husband, a son, a hero who came down for a ring, and she is the one waiting in the golden house when they arrive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Amphitrite in Greek mythology?

Amphitrite is a sea goddess and the wife of Poseidon. Hesiod’s Theogony makes her one of the fifty Nereids, the daughters of Nereus and Doris, while Apollodorus also lists her among the daughters of Ocean. In the Odyssey her name is used for the sea itself.

Who are Amphitrite’s children?

Hesiod names Triton as the son of Amphitrite and Poseidon, living with them in their golden house under the sea. Apollodorus adds a daughter, Rhode, who married the Sun, and elsewhere a second daughter, Benthesicyme.

How did Amphitrite marry Poseidon?

According to Hyginus, citing Eratosthenes, Amphitrite wanted to stay a virgin and fled to Atlas when Poseidon sought to marry her. A dolphin sent to search for her found her among the islands, persuaded her to marry Poseidon, and arranged the wedding. Poseidon rewarded the dolphin by placing it among the constellations.

What did Amphitrite give Theseus?

In Bacchylides’ song about Theseus, Amphitrite put a purple cloak around him and a wreath dark with roses on his head when he dived to Poseidon’s hall to answer Minos’s challenge. The wreath had been Aphrodite’s gift to her at her own wedding. Pausanias describes a painting by Micon in Athens in which Theseus returns with a gold crown from Amphitrite.

Where was Amphitrite worshipped?

Amphitrite shared a sanctuary with Poseidon on the island of Tenos, founded at the end of the fourth century BCE. Pausanias saw her statues in Poseidon’s temple at the Isthmus of Corinth, including a gold and ivory figure beside Poseidon on a chariot dedicated by Herodes the Athenian. Earlier votive plaques from Penteskouphia near Corinth show her as Poseidon’s wife.