Some derived it from TpiTog, 'third', the others from the names Tpirav or Tpiravig, identified either with a lake in Libya or with a stream in Boeotia or Thessaly or elsewhere.īoth versions figured already in the authors of the fifth century BC.
Concerning the first part, two main ideas were current. To be sure, there was common agreement that the second part of the word meant 'born'. This follows from the variety of interpretations suggested in antiquity. One may wonder whether Homer and Hesiod were aware of the meaning of the epithet they used, but one confidently concludes that the later Greeks were not. Keywords: Athena, Tritogeneia, Poseidon, trident, triads, mythology.Īthena is repeatedly called TpiToysvsia in Homeric poems (IL 4. This number of fingers signified the similarity with the dwellers of the sky - the birds, with their three toes in front. His trident is the symbol that indicates his celestial nature, and this symbol developed from a previous one - a raised hand with three fingers. He was the lord of the water that descended from heaven and a deity closely associated with the celestial pole. Poseidon (at least Poseidon Helikonios) was once such a god. Athena Tritogeneia, Poseidon's Trident and Early Sacred Trinityĭmitri Panchenko Saint-Petersburg State University Higher School of Economics in Saint-Petersburg The name Tritogeneia likely means 'born of the Third', this Third one being the supreme god, the Most High.