Page:EB1911 - Volume 27.djvu/307

 carriage road with Homs and by a steam tramway with Beirut, and is the natural outlet of the upper Orontes valley; but its inland trade has been greatly damaged by the Homs-Aleppo railway. From its own district, however, it exports silk, tobacco, oil, soap, sponges, eggs and fruit, and is a prosperous and growing place with a large Christian element in its population (about 30,000, the port-town included). It is served regularly by the Levantine lines of steamers.

 TRIPOLITSA, officially Tripolis, a town of Greece, capital of the nomarchy of Arcadia, and the seat of an archbishop, situated in a plain over 2,000 ft. above sea-level, 22 m. S.W. of Argos. The name has reference to the three ancient cities of Mantineia, Pallantium and Tegea, of which Tripolitsa is the modern representative. It does not stand on any ancient site. Before the war of independence it was the capital of the Morea and the seat of a pasha, with about 20,000 inhabitants; but in 1821 it was taken and sacked by the insurgents, and in 1825 its ruin was completed by Ibrahim Pasha. The town has since been rebuilt, and contains 10,789 inhabitants (1907).

TRIPTOLEMUS, in Greek mythology, the inventor of agriculture, first priest of Demeter, and founder of the Eleusinian mysteries. His name is probably connected with the “triple ploughing” (,  ), recommended in Hesiod's Works and Days and celebrated at an annual festival. It may be noted that in some traditions he is called the son of Dysaules (possibly identical with diaulos, the “double furrow” traced by the ox), and that, according to the Latin poets (e.g. Virgil, Georgics, i. 19), he is the inventor of the plough. Later, as the god of ploughing, he is confounded with Osiris, and on a vase-painting at St Petersburg he is represented leaving Egypt in his dragon-drawn chariot on his journey round the world. According to the best known Attic legend (Apollodorus, i. 5, 2) Triptolemus was the son of Celeus, king of Eleusis, and Metaneira. Demeter, during her search for her daughter Persephone, arrived at Eleusis in the form of an old woman. Here she was hospitably received by Celeus, and out of gratitude would have.made his son Demophon immortal by anointing him with ambrosia and destroying his mortal parts by fire; but Metaneira, happening to see what was going on, screamed out and disturbed the goddess. Demophon was burnt to death, and Demeter, to console his parents, took upon herself the care of Triptolemus, instructed him in everything connected with agriculture, and presented him with a wonderful chariot, in which he travelled all over the world, spreading the knowledge of the precious art and the blessings of civilization. In another account (Hyginus, Fab. 147) Triptolemus is the son of Eleusinus, and takes the place of Demophon in the above narrative. Celeus endeavoured to kill him on his return, but Demeter intervened and forced him to surrender his country to Triptolemus, who named it Eleusis after his father and instituted the festival of Demeter called Thesmophoria. In the Homeric hymn to Demeter, Triptolemus is simply one of the nobles of Eleusis, who was instructed by the goddess in her rites and ceremonies. The Attic legend of Eleusis also represented him as one of the judges of the underworld. His adventures on his world-wide mission formed the subject of a play of the same name by Sophocles. In works of art Triptolemus appears mounted on a chariot (winged or drawn by dragons, symbols of the fruitfulness of the earth), with Demeter and Persephone handing him the implements of agriculture. His attributes were a sceptre of ears of corn, sometimes a drinking-cup, which is being filled by Demeter, His altar and threshing-floor were shown on the Rarian plain near Eleusis; hence he is sometimes called the son of Rarus.

TRIPTYCH (Gr. , three-fold, made in three layers, -,  , three;  , a fold,  , to fold, double over), a painting, carving or other decorative design, executed on three compartments or panels, so constructed that the two wings may fold on hinges over the centre-piece; the backs of the wing-pieces are often-also painted, carved or otherwise decorated. The subject of the side-pieces are usually appropriate and subsidiary to that of the centre. The triptych is most frequently designed as an altar-piece. An earlier use of the term is for a set of three woode11 or ivory writing tablets, hinged or otherwise fastened together, the central tablet being waxed on both sides for the impression of the stilus or writing implement, the outer tablets only on the inside. The three tablets thus formed a small book.

TRISECTRIX, a curve which is a variety of the (q.v.) of Pascal, and named from its property of trisecting an angle. The polar equation is $$r = 1 + 2 \cos \theta$$ and the form of the curve is shown in the figure. To trisect an angle by means of this curve, describe a circle with centre O and radius OE, and let the given angle which is to be trisected be laid off from OE and cut the circle at S; let the chord ES cut the trisectrix in J. Then OJ trisects the given angle.

TRISTAN, or, one of the most famous heroes of medieval romance. In the earlier versions of his story he is the son of Rivalin, a prince of North West Britain, and Blancheflor, sister to King Mark of Cornwall. Rivalin is killed in battle, and Blancheflor, after giving birth to a son, dies of grief. The boy is brought up as his own by Roâld, or Rual, seneschal of the kingdom, who has him carefully trained in all chivalric and courtly arts. With the possible exception of Horn, Tristan is by far the most accomplished hero in the whole range of knightly romance; a finished musician, linguist and chess-player, no one can rival him in more knightly arts, in horsemanship or fencing. He has, besides, the whole science of “venérie” at his finger-tips; in fact Tristan is the “Admirable Crichton” of medieval romance, there is nothing he cannot do, and that superlatively well—it must be regretfully admitted that he is also a most accomplished liar! Attracted by his gifts, pirates from the North Sea kidnap the boy, but terrified by the storms which subsequently beset them, put him ashore on the coast of Cornwall, whence he finds his way to the court of his uncle King Mark. Here we have a first proof of his talent for romancing; for alike to two pilgrims who show him the road and to the huntsmen of Mark’s court (whom he instructs in the rightful method of cutting up and disposing the quarry), Tristan invents different, and most detailed, fictions of his land and parentage. He becomes a great favourite at court, and when Roâld, who has sought his young lord far and wide, at last reaches Tintagel, Mark welcomes the revelation of Tristan’s identity with joy. Cornwall is at this time in subjection to the king of Ireland, Gormond, and every third year must pay tribute; the Irish champion, Morôlt, brother to the queen, arrives to claim his toll of thirty youths and as many maidens. The Cornish knights (who in Arthurian romance are always represented as hopeless cowards), dare not contest his claim but Tristan challenges him to single combat, slays him and frees Cornwall from tribute. Unfortunately he himself has been wounded in the fight, and that by a poisoned weapon; and none but the queen of Ireland, Isôlt, or Iseult, possessed the secret of healing. Tristan causes himself to be placed in a boat with his harp, and committed to the waves, which carry him to the shores of Ireland. There he gives himself out for a minstrel, Tantris, and as such is tended and healed by Queen Iseult and her daughter of the same name. When recovered he makes a plausible excuse for leaving Ireland (pretending he has left a wife in his native land) and returns to Cornwall. His uncle receives him with joy, but the barons of the court are bitterly jealous and plot his destruction. They persuade Mark that he should marry, and Tristan, who has sung the praises of the princess Iseult, is despatched to Ireland to demand her hand, a most dangerous errand, as Gormond, incensed at