CIRCA 525-500 B.C.

Despite having no basis in the Greek literary tradition, the subject of Herakles wresting Triton – the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite – was common on Attic black-figured vases towards the end of the 6th century. As K. Schefold observes (Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art, p. 138), the interaction supplants Herakles’ fight with the aged Nereus, the only person who could tell the hero the way to the Hesperides. The Archaic period’s “obsession with athletic prowess that made so much of Herakles’ wresting the lion” preferred to see the “Triton’s strong young body locked in combat with Herakles” (op. cit.). For similar scenes on other black-figured vases, see nos. 4-9 in N. Icard-Gianolio, “Triton,” LIMC, vol. VIII.