124 MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS RITES. 
were fifty in number. They are variously represented: sometimes riding 
on hippocamps (pl. 21, fig. 9), again sporting in the water, and surrounded 
by dolphins, cupids, and genii (pl. 22, jig. 2). They generally composed 
the retinue of Amphitrite, wife of Posecdon, who together with Thetis, 
the wife of Pelews, enjoyed a distinguished celebrity. 
Thetis had been courted by Zeus and Poseidon, but Themis having 
declared that the child of Thetis would be greater than his sire, the gods 
withdrew. Peleus then urged his suit, but she opposed his entreaties until 
he obtained from Chedron the power of changing himself into a fish, and 
appearing to her in this form. The wedding was celebrated on Mount 
Pelion, in the presence of all the gods except Discordia. In jig. 10, Thetis is 
represented bringing to her son Achalles the shield wrought by Hephaistos. 
3. Guaucos, probably son of Poseidon, lived on the Black Sea. By 
means of a mysterious plant which he found and tasted, he was changed 
from a poor sailor of Boeotia into a sea god. He often assisted Nereus and 
warned the sailors of approaching dangers. His body, which above 
resembled the human form, terminated in two fishy tails. He is repre- 
sented (jig. 3) with a crown of sea-weeds, blowing on a shell, and carrying 
a rudder on his shoulder. 
4, Triton was a son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, and exercised his 
government over the Lybian Gulf, so notorious for its terrors. He was 
represented, like the innumerable Tritons who were his descendants, or 
perhaps only artistic multiplications of himself, as terminating in the 
double fish-tail with falcated fins; sometimes also he appeared with horses’ 
feet. On a gem (pl. 19, jig. 12) we see a Triton and a Nereid. The 
Nereid is holding a young Triton on her arm and leading one with her 
right hand; a cupid, the constant attendant of sea deities, together with a 
dolphin, accompanies them. 1. 23, fig. 22, exhibits a scaly Triton (taken 
from a fragment of a bas-relief), whose extremities are like those of a man. 
He is holding a sea monster and near him is the mutilated form of a 
woman, probably a Nereid. /%g. 21 gives us a view of a Triton’s head, 
with a thick beard dripping wet and the head covered with a fish skin, 
apparently connected with a fish basket. 
5. Patszmon, though, properly speaking, a sea hero more than a sea god, 
must be mentioned here, as he is identitied by many with /Verdtes the son 
of Vereus and brother of the WVererds. His original name was Melicertes. 
and he was the son of Athamas and Jno. The latter, suspected by Athamas 
of having caused the death of his other children, was pursued by the 
enraged father, and finally threw herself with Melicertes in her arms into 
the sea. The child was saved by Poseidon, who sent a dolphin to convey 
him to the shore, where he was received by Sisyphos, who educated him, 
Afterwards Poseidon made him a sea hero, and he is represented as a 
handsome youth riding a sea-ram and flourishing a whip over his head 
(pl. 21, fig. 8). His preservation is recorded on two coins (pl. 22, jig. 9, 
and pl. 28, jig. 25), on which he is represented lying on the back of a 
dolphin ; the tree behind him is intended to mark the spot where he was 
Janded and received by Sisyphos, who appears in the last named figure 
344 
