A bident is a two-pronged implement resembling a pitchfork. In Greek mythology, the bident is a weapon associated with Hades (Pluto), the ruler of the underworld.
Likewise, the three-pronged trident is the implement of his brother Poseidon (Neptune), god of the seas and earthquakes, while the lightning bolt, which superficially appears to have a single main point or prong, is a symbol of their youngest brother, Zeus (Jupiter), king of the gods and the sky.
The word 'bident' was brought into the English language before 1871, [1] and is derived from the Latin bidentis, meaning "having two teeth (or prongs)." [2]
Ancient Egyptians used a bident as a fishing tool, sometimes attached to a line and sometimes fastened with flight feathers. [3] Two-pronged weapons mainly of bronze appear in the archaeological record of ancient Greece. [4]
In Roman agriculture, the bidens (genitive bidentis) was a double-bladed drag hoe [5] or two-pronged mattock, [6] although a modern distinction between "mattock" and "rake" should not be pressed. [7] It was used to break up and turn ground that was rocky and hard. [8] The bidens is pictured on mosaics and other forms of Roman art, as well as tombstones to mark the occupation of the deceased. [9]
The spear of Achilles is said by a few sources to be bifurcated. [10] Achilles had been instructed in its use by Peleus, who had in turn learned from the centaur Chiron. The implement may have associations with Thessaly. A black-figured amphora from Corneto (Etruscan Tarquinia) depicts a scene from the hunt for the Calydonian boar, part of a series of adventures that took place in the general area. Peleus is accompanied by Castor, who is attacking the boar with a two-pronged spear. [11]
A bronze trident found in an Etruscan tomb at Vetulonia seems to have had an adaptable center prong that could be removed for use as a bident. [12] A kylix found at Vulci in ancient Etruria was formerly interpreted as depicting Pluto (Greek: Πλούτων Plouton) with a bident. A black-bearded man holding a peculiarly two-pronged instrument reaches out in pursuit of a woman, thought to be Persephone. The vase was subjected to improper reconstruction, however, and the couple are more likely Poseidon and Aethra. [13] On Lydian coins that show Plouton abducting Persephone in his four-horse chariot, the god holds his characteristic scepter, the ornamented point of which has sometimes been interpreted as a bident. [14] Other visual representations of the bident on ancient objects appear to have been either modern-era reconstructions, or in the possession of figures not securely identified as the ruler of the underworld. [15]
The Cambridge ritualist A.B. Cook saw the bident as an implement that might be wielded by Jupiter, the chief god of the Roman pantheon, in relation to Roman bidental ritual, the consecration of a place struck by lightning by means of a sacrificial sheep, called a bidens because it was of an age to have two teeth. [16] In the hands of Jupiter (also known as Jove, Etruscan Tinia), the trident or bident thus represents a forked lightning bolt. In ancient Italy, thunder and lightning were read as signs of divine will, wielded by the sky god Jupiter in three forms or degrees of severity (see manubia ). The Romans drew on Etruscan traditions for the interpretation of these signs. A tile found at Urbs Salvia in Picenum depicts an unusual composite Jove, "fairly bristling with weapons": a lightning bolt, a bident, and a trident, uniting the realms of sky, earth, and sea, and representing the three degrees of ominous lightning (see also Summanus). [17] Cook regarded the trident as the Greek equivalent of the Etruscan bident, each representing a type of lightning used to communicate the divine will; since he accepted the Lydian origin of the Etruscans, he traced both forms to the same Mesopotamia source. [18]
The later notion that the ruler of the underworld wielded a trident or bident can perhaps be traced to a line in the Hercules Furens ("Hercules Enraged") of Seneca. Dis (the Roman equivalent of Greek Plouton) uses a three-pronged spear to drive off Hercules as he attempts to invade Pylos. Seneca also refers to Dis as the "Infernal Jove" [19] or the "dire Jove", [20] the Jove who gives dire or ill omens (dirae), just as in the Greek tradition, Hades is sometimes identified as a "chthonic Zeus". That the trident and bident might be somewhat interchangeable is suggested by a Byzantine scholiast, who mentions Poseidon being armed with a bident. [21]
In Western art of the Middle Ages, classical underworld figures began to be depicted with a pitchfork. [22] Early Christian writers identified the classical underworld with Hell, and its denizens as demons or devils. [23] In the Renaissance, the bident became a conventional attribute of Pluto in art. Pluto, with Cerberus at his side, is shown holding the bident in the mythological ceiling mural painted by Raphael's workshop for the Villa Farnesina (the Loggia di Psiche, 1517–18). In a scene depicting a council of the gods, the three brothers Jove, Pluto, and Neptune are grouped closely, with a Cupid standing before them. Neptune holds the trident. Elsewhere in the loggia , a putto holds a bident. [24]
Perhaps influenced by this work, Agostino Carracci had depicted Pluto with a bident in a preparatory drawing for his painting Pluto (1592), in which the god holds instead his characteristic key. [25]
In Caravaggio's Giove, Nettuno e Plutone (ca. 1597), a ceiling mural based on alchemical allegory, Pluto – with his 3-headed dog, Cerberus – holds a bident. (Immediately beside him, Neptune is shown with a trident. Some writers have confused the two figures; Neptune's identity is confirmed by his embrace of the Hippocamp – the "sea horse" with fins for forelegs, and whose markings appear to repeat the trident in a stylized, perhaps symbolic, form.)
Hades, in the ancient Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed joint rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his helm with Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side.
Jupiter, also known as Jove, is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion and mythology. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman state religion throughout the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became the dominant religion of the Empire. In Roman mythology, he negotiates with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish principles of Roman religion such as offering, or sacrifice.
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is a psychopomp, the ferryman of the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the worlds of the living and the dead. Archaeology confirms that, in some burials, low-value coins known generically as Charon's obols were placed in, on, or near the mouth of the deceased, or next to the cremation urn containing their ashes. This has been taken to confirm that at least some aspects of Charon's mytheme are reflected in some Greek and Roman funeral practices, or else the coins function as a viaticum for the soul's journey. In Virgil's epic poem, Aeneid, the dead who could not pay the fee, and those who had received no funeral rites, had to wander the near shores of the Styx for one hundred years before they were allowed to cross the river. Charon also ferried the living mortals Heracles and Aeneas to the underworld and back again.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Plutus is the god and the personification of wealth, and the son of the goddess of agriculture Demeter and the mortal Iasion.
Dis Pater, otherwise known as Rex Infernus or Pluto, is a Roman god of the underworld. Dis was originally associated with fertile agricultural land and mineral wealth, and since those minerals came from underground, he was later equated with the chthonic deities Pluto (Hades) and Orcus.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Pluto was the ruler of the Greek underworld. The earlier name for the god was Hades, which became more common as the name of the underworld itself. Pluto represents a more positive concept of the god who presides over the afterlife. Ploutōn was frequently conflated with Ploûtos, the Greek god of wealth, because mineral wealth was found underground, and because as a chthonic god Pluto ruled the deep earth that contained the seeds necessary for a bountiful harvest. The name Ploutōn came into widespread usage with the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which Pluto was venerated as both a stern ruler and a loving husband to Persephone. The couple received souls in the afterlife and are invoked together in religious inscriptions, being referred to as Plouton and as Kore respectively. Hades, by contrast, had few temples and religious practices associated with him, and he is portrayed as the dark and violent abductor of Persephone.
Neptune is the god of freshwater and the sea in the Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon. In the Greek-inspired tradition, he is a brother of Jupiter and Pluto, with whom preside over the realms of heaven, the earthly world, and the seas. Salacia is his wife.
A trident is a three-pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. As compared to an ordinary spear, the three tines increase the chance that a fish will be struck and decrease the chance that a fish will be able to dislodge itself if struck badly. On the other hand, they are not so many as to overly reduce the spear's concentration of force for piercing.
Pluto is a fictional deity appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is based on the Greco-Roman god of the same name.
Hades is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as an adversary and sometimes-ally of the superhero Wonder Woman. Based upon the eponymous Greek mythological figure, he is the Olympian god of the dead and ruler of the underworld.
A planet symbol or planetary symbol is a graphical symbol used in astrology and astronomy to represent a classical planet or one of the modern planets. The symbols were also used in alchemy to represent the metals associated with the planets, and in calendars for their associated days. Most of the symbols originated in Greco-Roman astronomy; their modern forms developed in the 16th century.
In classical mythology, the Cap of Invisibility is a helmet or cap that can turn the wearer invisible, also known as the Cap of Hades or Helm of Hades. Wearers of the cap in Greek myths include Athena, the goddess of wisdom, the messenger god Hermes, and the hero Perseus. Those wearing the Cap become invisible to other supernatural entities, akin to a cloud of mist sometimes used to remain undetectable.
Hera is a fictional deity appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is based on the Greek Goddess of the same name. Hera first appeared in the pages of Thor #129, written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby.
Neptune, also called Poseidon, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is based on the Roman God with the same name and his Greek counterpart. Neptune is the god of the sea in the Olympian pantheon, as well as patron god over Atlantis. Neptune first appeared in Tales to Astonish #70 and was adapted by Stan Lee and Gene Colan.
Typhon is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is most commonly associated with the hero Hercules. He is based on the legendary monster of the same name.
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Eubuleus is a god known primarily from devotional inscriptions for mystery religions. The name appears several times in the corpus of the so-called Orphic gold tablets spelled variously, with forms including Euboulos, Eubouleos and Eubolos. It may be an epithet of the central Orphic god, Dionysus or Zagreus, or of Zeus in an unusual association with the Eleusinian Mysteries. Scholars of the late 20th and early 21st centuries have begun to consider Eubuleus independently as "a major god" of the mysteries, based on his prominence in the inscriptional evidence. His depiction in art as a torchbearer suggests that his role was to lead the way back from the Underworld.
The mythological Greek deity Hades often appears in popular culture. In spite of his present neutrality and lack of bad deeds, he is often portrayed as a villain due to his association with death and the underworld.
The trident of Poseidon and his Roman equivalent, Neptune, has been their traditional divine attribute in many ancient depictions. Poseidon's trident was crafted by the Cyclopes.
Śuri, Latinized as Soranus, was an ancient Etruscan infernal, volcanic and solar fire god, also venerated by other Italic peoples – among them Capenates, Faliscans, Latins and Sabines – and later adopted into ancient Roman religion.
bident was a spear with two barbed points ... thrust at the fish ... fish spears of the South Sea Islanders ... same manner ... as the bident by the ancient Egyptians
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