page_title: Amphitrite
section_title: Representation and cult
hierarchical_section_title: Amphitrite / Representation and cult
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: So genannte »Altar von Domitius Ahenobarbus«&#160;oder »Statuebasis von Marcus Antonius«, Relieffriese von der Basis einer monumentalen Figurengruppe. Meerthiasos für der Hochzeit von Poseidon und Amphitrite, 2. Hälfte des 2. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Einzelheit: Poseidon und Amphitrite im Hochzeitwagen, gezogen durch zwei musizierende Tritonen (Vorderseite). English: So-called “Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus” or “Statue Base of Marcus Antonius”, relief freize of a monumental statue group base. Sea thiasos for the wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite, 2nd half of the 2nd century BC. Detail: Poseidon and Amphitrite in the bridal carriage, drawn by two Tritons playing music (front panel). Français&#160;: «&#160;Autel de Domitius Ahenobarbus&#160;» ou «&#160;base de statue de Marcus Antonius&#160;», frise en relief de la base d'un groupe statutaire monumental. Thiase marin pour les noces de Poséidon et Amphitrite, 2e moitié du IIe siècle av. J.-C. Détail&#160;: Poséidon et Amphitrite dans le chariot nuptial, tiré par deux Tritons jouant de la musique. Italiano: Ara di domizio enobarbo, Thiasos marina (Nettuno e Anfitrite su un carro trainato da tritoni
context_page_description: In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea goddess and wife of Poseidon and the queen of the sea. She was a daughter of Doris and Nereus. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she became the consort of Poseidon and was later used as a symbolic representation of the sea. In Roman mythology, the consort of Neptune, a comparatively minor figure, was Salacia, the goddess of saltwater.
context_section_description: Though Amphitrite does not figure in Greek cultus, at an archaic stage she was of outstanding importance, for in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, she appears at the birthing of Apollo among, in Hugh G. Evelyn-White's translation,  "all the chiefest of the goddesses, Dione and Rhea and Ichnaea and Themis and loud-moaning Amphitrite;"  more recent translators are unanimous in rendering "Ichnaean Themis" rather than treating "Ichnae"  as a separate identity. Theseus in the submarine halls of his father Poseidon saw the daughters of Nereus dancing with liquid feet, and "august, ox-eyed Amphitrite", who wreathed him with her wedding wreath, according to a fragment of  Bacchylides.  Jane Ellen Harrison recognized in the poetic treatment an authentic echo of Amphitrite's early importance: "It would have been much simpler for Poseidon to recognize his own son... the myth belongs to that early stratum of mythology when Poseidon was not yet god of the sea, or, at least, no-wise supreme there—Amphitrite and the Nereids ruled there, with their servants the Tritons. Even so late as the Iliad Amphitrite is not yet 'Neptuni uxor'" [Neptune's wife]".
  Amphitrite, "the third one who encircles [the sea]", was so entirely confined in her authority to the sea and the creatures in it that she was almost never associated with her husband, either for purposes of worship or in works of art, except when he was to be distinctly regarded as the god who controlled the sea. An exception may be the cult image of Amphitrite that Pausanias saw in the temple of Poseidon at the Isthmus of Corinth (ii.1.7).
  Pindar, in his sixth Olympian Ode, recognized Poseidon's role as "great god of the sea, husband of Amphitrite, goddess of the golden spindle."  For later poets, Amphitrite became simply a metaphor for the sea: Euripides, in Cyclops (702) and Ovid, Metamorphoses, (i.14).
  Eustathius said that Poseidon first saw her dancing at Naxos among the other Nereids, and carried her off. But in another version of the myth, she fled from his advances to Atlas, at the farthest ends of the sea; there the dolphin of Poseidon sought her through the islands of the sea, and finding her, spoke persuasively on behalf of Poseidon, if we may believe Hyginus and was rewarded by being placed among the stars as the constellation Delphinus.
  In the arts of vase-painting and mosaic, Amphitrite was distinguishable from the other Nereids only by her queenly attributes. In works of art, both ancient ones and post-Renaissance paintings, Amphitrite is represented either enthroned beside Poseidon or driving with him in a chariot drawn by sea-horses (hippocamps) or other fabulous creatures of the deep, and attended by Tritons and Nereids. She is dressed in queenly robes and has nets in her hair. The pincers of a crab are sometimes shown attached to her temples.
caption: Sea thiasos depicting the wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite, from the Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus in the Field of Mars, bas-relief, Roman Republic, 2nd century BC
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