TRITEIA

TRITEIA was a sea-nymph of the Korinthian (Corinthian) Gulf and the town of Triteia in Akhaia (Achaea) (southern Greece). She was loved by the god Ares and bore him a son named Melanippos, the founding-prince of her namesake town.

Triteia resembles several other warrior-nymph consorts of Ares in the north-west Peloponnese such as Harpina and Sterope of Pisa. She was perhaps also identified the Libyan Athena, a war-goddess daughter of Lake Tritonis. In the cult at Triteia she may have been equated with Enyo.

PARENTS

TRITON (Pausanias 7.22.8)

OFFSPRING

MELANIPPOS (by Ares) (Pausanias 7.22.8)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

TRITAEA (Tritaia), a daughter of Triton, a priestess of Athena, by whom Ares became the father of Melanippus, who gave to a town in Achaia the name of his mother. Sacrifices were offered there to Ares and Tritaea in the temple of Athena. (Paus. vii. 22. § 5, &c.)

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 22. 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"Ares mated with Triteia the daughter of Triton, that this maiden was priestess to Athena, and that Melanippos (Melanippus), the son of Ares and Triteia, founded the city [of Triteia in Akhaia] when he grew up, naming it after his mother . . . The people here are accustomed to sacrifice both to Ares and to Triteia."

SOURCES

GREEK

• Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Travelogue C2nd A.D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A complete bibliography of the translations quoted on this page.