Dis (the Roman equivalent of Greek Plouton) uses a three-pronged spear to drive off Hercules as he attempts to invade Pylos. 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. 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. 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). The Romans drew on Etruscan traditions for the interpretation of these signs. 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). In the hands of Jupiter (also known as Jove, Etruscan Tinia), the trident or bident thus represents a forked lightning bolt. 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. 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. 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. The vase was subjected to improper reconstruction, however, and the couple are more likely Poseidon and Aethra. A black-bearded man holding a peculiarly two-pronged instrument reaches out in pursuit of a woman, thought to be Persephone. A kylix found at Vulci in ancient Etruria was formerly interpreted as depicting Pluto (Greek: Πλούτων Plouton) with a bident. Ī 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. Peleus is accompanied by Castor, who is attacking the boar with a two-pronged spear. 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. The implement may have associations with Thessaly. Achilles had been instructed in its use by Peleus, who had in turn learned from the centaur Chiron. The spear of Achilles is said by a few sources to be bifurcated. In mythology Roman-era mosaics show the bident for hare hunting ( Villa Romana del Casale, Sicily, ca. The bidens is pictured on mosaics and other forms of Roman art, as well as tombstones to mark the occupation of the deceased. It was used to break up and turn ground that was rocky and hard. In Roman agriculture, the bidens ( genitive bidentis) was a double-bladed drag hoe or two-pronged mattock, although a modern distinction between "mattock" and "rake" should not be pressed. Two-pronged weapons mainly of bronze appear in the archaeological record of ancient Greece. The word 'bident' was brought into the English language before 1871, and is derived from the Latin bidentis, meaning "having two teeth (or prongs)." Historical uses Īncient Egyptians used a bident as a fishing tool, sometimes attached to a line and sometimes fastened with flight feathers. 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. In Greek mythology, the bident is a weapon associated with Hades ( Pluto), the ruler of the underworld. Two-pronged implement resembling a pitchfork Pluto holding a bident in a woodcut from the Gods and Goddesses series of Hendrick Goltzius (1588–1589)Ī bident is a two-pronged implement resembling a pitchfork.
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