T R I 



explain the Trifula as allufive to Siva's fupremacy over the 

 three worlds ; or earth, heaven, and hell ; a myfterious triad, 

 av/efuUy indicated by the compound triverbal phrafe Bhur- 

 bhuvafwak, of which fee under the article O'm. 



The word Trifula means, in the Sanfcrit tongue, three- 

 pointed. In the weft of India, it is fometimes called tri- 

 fhda ; and hence, connefted with other coincidences, Mr. 

 Wilford ( Af. Ref. vol. iii.) confiders " the Jupiter Triphy- 

 Uu! of the Panchsean illandsto be no other than Siva holding 

 a triphala ; he being alfo reprefented with three eyes, to de- 

 note a triple energy ; as Viflinu and Prithvi are feverally ty- 

 pified by an equilateral triangle, and conjointly, when their 

 powers are fuppofed to be combined, by two fuch triangles 

 interfering each other." The myfterious properties of the 

 triangle, or cone, with its apex upward or downward, and ot 

 two interfefting triangles, are noticed in our articles LiNGA, 

 O'm, Parvati, Pavaka, Siva, Vishnu, and others thence 

 referred to. The interfered equilateral triangles, mentioned 

 by Mr. Wilford as typical of Vifhnu and Prithvi, have an 

 allufion in natural philofophy to the influence of humidity 

 on the earth ; Viftinu reprefenting the aqueous principle of 

 nature, and Prithvi the material, or the earth. (See 

 Prithu and Vishnu.) Of the refemblance of Jupiter 

 Triphylius, or Triopthalmos, with the three -eyed Siva, 

 fee under his name of Trilokan, which means with three 

 ey«s. Trinetra has aKo a fimilar meaning. 



TRISULI, a name of the Hindoo deity Siva. He_is fo 

 called from bearing the fymbol Trifula, or trident. See 

 Trisula. 



TRISYLLABLE, TrissyllabLE, in Grammar, ^.-Koxd. 

 confifting of three fyllables. 



TRITiEA, in Ancient Geography, a town of Achaia, in 

 the fouthern part, on the river Melas ; faid to be founded 

 by Menallppus, fon of Trittia, a prieftefs of Minerva, in 

 confequence of her amours with the god Mars. The princi- 

 pal temple of this city was that of the greater gods, who 

 were annually honoured by feafts fimilar to thofe of Bac- 

 chus. The ftatue of Minerva, which was reckoned beau- 

 tiful, was tranfported from hence to Rome. This town 

 was one of thofe whic'n Auguftus put into a ftate of de- 

 pendence upon Patras. 



TRIT^OPHYES, a word ufed by the medical writers 

 of the ancients, to exprefs a kind of fever, much of the na- 

 ture of the tertian, and taking its rife from it. 



TRITANY, in Geography, a town of Hindooftan, in 

 the Carnatic ; 1 8 miles S. of BamrauzepoUam. 



TRITCHINGODE, a town of Hindooftan, m My- 

 fore ; 6 miles S. of Sankeridurgam. 



TRITCHINOPOLY, a town of Hindooftan, in the 

 Carnatic. It is furrounded with two walls, flanked with 

 towers, and encompafled with a ditch. It was taken by the 

 Bntifh under major-general Lawrence and captain (after- 

 wards lord) Clive, in 1751, and fince that time it has been 

 made the capital of Madura ; 67 miles W. of Tranouebar. 

 N. lat. 10° 48'. E. long. 78' 45'. 



TRITE, TfjTii, in Mufic, the third mufical chord in the 

 fyftem cf the ancients. 



There are three ftrings under this denomination in the an- 

 cient diagramma, viz. the trite hyperbolaon, trite Jiezeugnienon, 

 and trite fynemmenon. 



This chord of the ancient tetrachord was fo named 

 from its being the third from the nete ; and hence we 

 might call it the anti-penultimate. It was otherwifc, in 

 fome tetrachords, called pai-ypatc. See Diagram and 

 Interval. 



TitlTE Diezeugmenon, in the Creei Mujic, was die anti- 



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penultimate note of the diezeugmcnon tetrachord, and an- 

 fwers to Guido's c, fol, fa, ut. 



Trite Hyperbolaon, was the anti-penultimate note of the 

 hyperbolson tetrachord, and anfwers to Guido's/, fa, ut. 



Trite Synemmcnon, was the anti-penultimate note of the 

 fynemmenon tetrachord, and anfwers to Guido's b, fa. 

 Wallis's Appen. Ptolem. Harm. p. 257. See Diagram. 



TRITE A, or Tritia, in ylncient Geography, a town 

 of Afia, in the Troade. 



TRITHEISM, the opinion of the Tritheifts, or tiie 

 herefy of believing three Gods. 



Tritheifm confifts in admitting not only of three perfons 

 in the Godhead ; but of three fubftances, three eflences or 

 hypoftafes, and indeed three Gods. 



Several people, out of fear of giving into Tritheifm, hare 

 become Sabelliar.s ; and feveral others, to avoid Sabel- 

 lianifm, have commenced Tritheifts ; fo delicate and fubtilo 

 is the diftinftion. 



In the famous controverfy between Dr. South and Dr. 

 Sherlock, the firft is judged to have run into Sabellianifm, 

 by a too rigorous affertion of the unity of a Godhead ; and 

 the latter into Tritheifm, by a too abfolute maintaining of 

 the Trinity. 



John the Grammarian, furnamed Philoponus, lover of 

 labour, is held the author of the fcft of the Tritheifts, under 

 the emperor Phocas ; at leaft it appears that he was a zeal- 

 ous advocate of it. 



The chief of this fedt, according to Mofheim, Ecd. 

 Hift. vol. i. was John Afcufnage, a Syrian philofopher, 

 and a Monophyfite. He imagined in the Deity three na- 

 tures or fubftances, abfolutely equal in all refpefts, and 

 joined together by no common effence. 



TRITHEITiE, Tritheists, in Church Hijlory, a name 

 given to fuch heretics, as admit not only of three perfons, 

 but of three diftinft fubftances aiid Hatures, in the Holy 

 Trinity. See Trinity and Tritheism. 



TRITHEMIUS, John, ^iiof, m Biography, was born 

 in the year 1442, at the village of Trittenheim, near Treves, 

 whence he took his name. Having finiftied his courfe of 

 education m the univerfities of Treves and Heidelberg, hrr 

 was chofen abbot of the Benedidine monaftery of Spanhein 

 in 1483, which he fuperintended for twenty-two years, and 

 when he withdrew from it in confequence of a fadtion of thj 

 monks, he was placed by the bifliop of V/urtzburg at the 

 head of a monsfter)' in that city, where he died in 1 5 18, at 

 the age of feventy-fix. " Trithemius," fays one of his 

 biographers, " was a perfon of vaft erudition, a philofo- 

 pher, mathematician, chemift, poet, hiftorian, and divine, 

 and converfant in the plebrcw, Greek, and Latin Lui- 

 guages." His works, written in Latin, arc numerous, but 

 thofe in biography and hiftory arc held in the higheft eftima- 

 tion. His writings on piety and morahty chiefly relate to 

 the monallic and lacerdotal life, miracles of faints, and fucli 

 topics. His philofophy bore the myftic character of the 

 age in which he lived. His " Steganography, or the Art 

 of writing in Cyphers," containing fome Angular charatlcrs 

 ignorantly taken for talifmans, fubjedled him very unjuftly 

 to the charge of magic. Upon the whole, " he appears to 

 have been a perfon whofc great learning was confiderably 

 tinftured with credulity, and whofc induftry was fuperior 

 to his judgment." Dupin. Gen. Biog. 



TRITHING. See Trihing. 



TRITICUM, in Botany, an old Latin name, very fatif- 

 faftorily derived, by Varro himfelf, from tritum, ground or 

 rubbed, bccaufe of the manner in which its grain is prepared 

 for the food of mankind. Wheat, or Wheat-grafs. — Linn. 



Geo. 



