Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1187

Rh TRIOPAS. rintius), and below ROM A. (Eckhel, vol. v. p. 199, foil.) TRIPTOLEMUS. 1175 COIN OP C. CURIATIUS TRIGEMINUS. TRIGONEIA or TRlTOGENEIA {Tpiy6u€[a or TpiTuyeveia), a daughter of Aeolus, and the wife of Minyas, or according to others, the mother of Minyas by Poseidon. (Tzetz. ad Lye. 873 ; Schol. ad Find. Pyih. iv. 120.) [L. S.] TRIO, L. FULCI'NIUS, a notorious informer under Tiberius {celebre inter accusatores Trionis ingenium, Tac. Ann. ii. 28), and one of the friends and favourites of Tiberius. He is first mentioned in A. D. 16, when he was the chief instrument in procuring the condemnation of the praetor L. Scri- bonius Libo. In a. d. 20 he accused Piso before the consuls, and in consequence of that service was allowed by Tiberius to become a candidate for the higher honours of the state. In A. D. 31 he was consul with P. Memmius Ptegulus, in which venr Sejanus was put to death. Being a friend of Sejanus, Trio was suspected of favouring his cause, and vehement disputes arose in consequence be- tween the two consuls. By pretending great anxiety to bring the accomplices of Sejanus to jus- tice, the fall of Trio was postponed for a short time; but in A. D. 35, having been accused and thrown into prison, he did not choose to wait till he was formallj' condemned, and therefore put an end to his own life, after first making his will, in which he attacked in the severest terms Macro and the principal freedmen of Tiberius, as well as the emperor himself. (Tac. A7in. ii. 28, 30, iii. 10, 19, V. 11, vi. 4, 38 ; Dion Cass. Iviii. 9, 25.) TRIO, LUCRE'TIUS, known only from coins, on which we find Cn. Lucretius Trio and L. Lu- cretius Trio. The specimen annexed has on the obverse the head of the Sun, and on the reverse the Moon surrounded by the seven Triones, or the constellation of the Great Bear. (See Diet, of Antiq. p. 147, 2d ed.) These devices, like many in modern heraldry, are a kind of punning on the name. The Sun and Moon give the greatest light (^Mc-em), and thus have reference to the gentile name Lucretius; while the seven Triones are an evident allusion to the surname. (Eckhel, vol. V. p. 239.) COIN OF L. LUCRETIUS TRIO. TRI'OPAS (TptcJiros or Tplovf/). 1. A son of Poseidon and Canace, a daughter of Aeolus (Schol. od Callim. Hymn, in Cer. 100) or of Helios and Rhodos, and the father of Iphimedeia and Erysi- chthon (Apollod. i. 7. § 4 ; Diod. v. 56 ; Steph. Byz. s. V. Tpidiriov ; Ov. Met. viii. 751); he is also called the father of Pelasgus. (Paus. ii. 22. § 2.) He expelled the Pelasgians from the Dotian plain, but was himself obliged to emigrate, and went to Caria, where he founded Cnidus on the Triopian promontory. (Diod. I. c; Herod, i. 174.) His son Erysichthon was punished by Demeter with insa- tiable hunger, because he had violated her sacred grove (Callim. Hymn, in Cer. 25, &c.); but others relate the same of Triopas himself. (Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 14; comp. Schol. ad Theocrit. xvii. 69.) The statue of Triopas with a horse stood at Delphi, being an offering of the Cnidians. (Paus. x. 11. §1.) 2. A son of Phorbas, an Argive, was the father of lasus, Agenor and Messene. (Paus. ii. 16. § I, iv. 1. § 2.) [L. S.] TRFPHYLUS (Tpj>uAos), a son of Areas from whom Tryphylia, a portion of Elis, was be- lieved to have derived its name. (Polyb. iv. 77 ; Paus. X. 9. § 3.) [L. S.] TRIPTO'LEMUS {TpnrrSXeiios), a son of Celeus and Metaneira or Polymnia, or according to others, a son of king Eleusis by Cothonea (or Cyntinea, or Hyona, Serv. ad Virg. Georg. i. 19 ; Schol. ad Stat. Theb. ii. 382.) Others again describe him as a son of Oceanus and Gaea, as a younger brother or relation of Celeus, as a son of Trochilus by an Eleusinian woman, as a son of Rharus by a daughter of Amphictyon, or lastly, as a son of Dysaules. (Hygin. Fab. 147 ; Apollod. i. 5. § 2 j Paus. i. 14. § 2 ; Plom. Hymn, in Cer. 153.) Tri- ptolemus was the favourite of Demeter, and the inventor of the plough and agriculture, and of civilisation, which is the result of it. He was the great hero in the Eleusinian mysteries. (Plin. H. N. vii. BQ; Callim. Hymn, in Cer. 22; Virg. Georg. i. 19.) According to Apollodorus, who makes Triptolemus a son of Celeus and Metaneira, De- meter, on her arrival at Eleusis in Attica, undertook as nurse the care of Demophon, a brother of Triptolemus, who had just been bom. In order to make the child immortal, Demeter at night put him into a fire, but as Metaneira on discovering the proceeding, screamed out, the child was con- sumed by the flames. As a compensation for this bereavement, the goddess gave to Triptolemus a chariot with winged dragons and seeds of wheat. According to others Triptolemus first sowed barley in the Rharian plain, and thence spread the culti- vation of grain all over the earth ; and in later times an altar and thresliing floor of Triptolemus were shown there. (Paus. i. 38. § 6.) In the Homeric hymn on Demeter, Triptolemus is described as one of the chief men of the country, who like other nobles is instructed by Demeter in her sacred worship (123, 474, &c.) ; but no mention is made of any relationship between him and Celeus. In the tradition related by Hyginus, who makes Triptolemus a son of Eleusis, Triptolemus himself was the boy whom the goddes^ wished to make im- mortal. Eleusis, who was watching her, was dis- covered by her and punished with instant death. (Ov. Trist. iii. 8. 2.) Triptolemus, after having received the dragon-chariot, rode in it all over tho earth, making man acquainted with the blessings of agriculture. (Comp. Paus. vii. 1 8. § 2, viii. 4. § 1 ; Ov. Met. V. 646, &c.) On his return to Attica, king Celeus wanted to kill him, but by the 4 F 4