Ichthyocentaurs_from_the_Fountain_of_the_Centaurs_by_AA_Weinman,_Jefferson_City_MO_USA,_1927

In late Classical Greek art, ichthyocentaurs ( el, ἰχθυοκένταυρος, plural: ) were

centaur A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...

ine sea beings with the upper body of a human, the lower anterior half and fore-legs of a horse, and the tailed half of a fish. The earliest example dates to the 2nd century B. C., among the friezes in the

Pergamon Altar The Pergamon Altar () was a monumental construction built during the reign of the Ancient Greek King Eumenes II in the first half of the 2nd century BC on one of the terraces of the acropolis of Pergamon in Anatolia, Asia Minor. The structure wa ...

. There are further examples of Aphros and/or Bythos, the personifications of foam and abyss, respectively, depicted as ichthyocentaurs in mosaics and sculptures. The term ''ichthyocentaur'' is of late coinage, attributable to the Byzantine writer

John Tzetzes John Tzetzes ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης Τζέτζης, Iōánnēs Tzétzēs; c. 1110, Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who is known to have lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He was able to p ...

in the 12th century. They are also referred as sea-centaur.

Nomenclature

Origin

"Ichthyocentaur" is not a term in the vocabulary of Classical antiquity at all. The word's earliest known use occurs in the 12th century by Ioannes Tzetzes in his commentary ''On

Lycophron Lycophron (; grc-gre, Λυκόφρων ὁ Χαλκιδεύς; born about 330–325 BC) was a Hellenistic Greek tragic poet, grammarian, sophist, and commentator on comedy, to whom the poem ''Alexandra'' is attributed (perhaps falsely). Life and ...

'', 34 and may have been coined by him.

Meaning

Ichthyocentaur is a

Triton Triton commonly refers to: * Triton (mythology), a Greek god * Triton (moon), a satellite of Neptune Triton may also refer to: Biology * Triton cockatoo, a parrot * Triton (gastropod), a group of sea snails * ''Triton'', a synonym of ''Triturus' ...

represented as having the fore-legs of a horse, rather than just having a fish-like lower-body. Ichthyocentaur comes from two different words, ''ichthyo-'' and ''centaur''. ''Ichthyo-'' is an adjective stem from Greek ''ikhthis'' () "fish"; ''

'', from Greek ''kentauros'' (), a creature from classical mythology that has a man's upper body attached to a horse's body and legs.

Synonyms

The term or its equivalent in other European languages (german: Ichthyokentaur, plural: ''Ichthyokentauren''; french: Ichthyocentaure, Ichtyocentaures) has been used in classical art commentary in the modern age, and vernacular terms such as "sea-centaur" (german: Seekentauren, Fischkentauren; french: centaures marins) have also been interchangeably applied.

Henri van de Waal Henri (''Hans'') van de Waal (3 March 1910 – 7 May 1972) was a Dutch writer and art historian known for developing Iconclass. Van de Waal was born in Rotterdam. In 1934 he finished his education as an art historian in Leiden with a monography on ...

(1976) placed "ichthyocentaur", "centaurotriton", and "sea-centaur" in the same iconographic group or

iconclass Iconclass is a specialized library classification designed for art and iconography. It was originally conceived by Henri van de Waal, and was further developed by a group of scholars after his death. Development based on Dewey Decimal system The I ...

synonymous treatment of these terms are also seen in archaeological papers. Centaur-Tritons is another name for ichthyocentaurs, noted in a 19th-century reference.

Greek art

The earliest datable depiction of an ichthyocentaur is found in the relief sculptures of the

(2nd century, B. C.), although the inscription labels the figure as a "

". The ichthyocentaur in this relief sculpture has wings on its back; these wings are of a peculiar type which are lined with either seaweed or sea creature parts instead of feathers. Ichthyocentaurs are sometimes portrayed with a pair of pincered arms (similar to a

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

's clawed arms) emerging out of their heads.

Aphros and Bythos

Zeugma mosaics

A " Birth of Venus (Aphrodite)" mosaic unearthed at Zeugma, Turkey shows Aphrodite emerging from a shell, supported by two "sea-centaurs", construed as special names for Tritons, according to a paper published by the leader of the French excavation team. The mosaics bear inscriptions, identifying the sea-centaurs as Aphros ("Sea-Foam",

personified Personification occurs when a thing or abstraction is represented as a person, in literature or art, as a type of anthropomorphic metaphor. The type of personification discussed here excludes passing literary effects such as "Shadows hold their ...

) and Bythos ("Sea-Depths"). The Aphros is shown with a pair of lobster-like appendages growing out of his head, as is Bythos (see images). In the Zeugma mosaic, the elder-looking triton is labeled Aphros and the youthful-looking one is called Bythos, which is contrary to convention seen in other examples. This mosaic dates to the 3rd century CE, and is now part of the

Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology The Gaziantep Museum of Archaeology ( tr, Gaziantep Arkeoloji Müzesi) is an archaeological museum located in the city of Gaziantep, Turkey. It housed for some years a collection of mosaics, most of which were excavated from the ancient Roman ci ...

's collection, now housed in the annex named the Zeugma Mosaic Museum.

Apamea, Paphos and others

In the marine procession mosaic found underneath a cathedral at Apamea, Syria (c. 362-363 CE), there is an Aphros in ichthyocentaur form. This Aphros (identified by inscription) is depicted as a youthful triton with lobster-like antennae on its head and hair of seaweed. Bythos also appears in the same group; he evidently appears old-aged and the commentator remarks this is none other than the " Old Man of the Sea". ZyPaphos07

The Paphos mosaic depicts Bythos alone carrying the nereid Thetis along with two other nereids, Doris and Galateia. The two sea gods also appear in a pair of matching sculptures (belonging to the Louvre and Vatican Museums) depicting them carrying silen companions of the god

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...

after his company was driven into the sea by King Lycurgus of Thrace.

Aphros in glosses

Aphros is glossed as a king of

Ancient Libya The Latin name ''Libya'' (from Greek Λιβύη: ''Libyē'', which came from Berber: ''Libu'') referred to North Africa during the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity. Berbers occupied the area for thousands of years before the recording of histor ...

and the progenitor of the Aphroi (or Carthaginians) according to the entry in the Byzantine lexicon, the ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...

''."", ''Suda On Line", tr. Jennifer Benedict. 5 June 2001. A mosaic uncovered in Tunisia confirms this belief; it depicts a pair of African sea gods swimming alongside Poseidon's chariot—one is the ichthyocentaur Aphros and the other a twin-tailed Triton, god of the Libyan

Lake Tritonis {{redirect, Trito, the reconstructed mythological figure, Indo-European cosmogony#First Warrior Lake Tritonis ( el, Τριτωνίδα λίμνην), was a large body of fresh water in northern Africa that was described in many ancient texts. Classi ...

. The ''Suda'' also states this Aphros was the son of Cronos and Philyra. This matches the parentage of the centaur Chiron, who was the son of the

Titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fictiona ...

Cronos and the nymph Philyra (''

Bibliotheke Bibliotheca may refer to: * ''Bibliotheca'' (Pseudo-Apollodorus), a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends * '' Bibliotheca historica'', a first century BC work of universal history by Diodorus Siculus * ''Bibliotheca'' ...

'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus 1.2) from which it might be deduced this Aphros and Chiron were siblings. Aphros was perhaps regarded as Aphrodite's foster-father, given their similarity in names.

Other examples

The monochrome mosaic Ishthmia (2nd century CE or later), included an ichthyocentaur-form Triton on the upper panel and a winged-form Triton on the lower; both these beardless Tritons were depicted with a pair of what look like crustacean pincers growing out of their heads. A pair of marine thiasos

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

fragments in

Herculaneum Herculaneum (; Neapolitan and it, Ercolano) was an ancient town, located in the modern-day ''comune'' of Ercolano, Campania, Italy. Herculaneum was buried under volcanic ash and pumice in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Like the nea ...

have been described, such that in one fragment, are two tritons, one of them an ichthyocentaur. The ichthyocentaur here is beardless, and bears a ribboned trident. A pair of

sea crayfish Spiny lobsters, also known as langustas, langouste, or rock lobsters, are a family (Palinuridae) of about 60 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia. Spiny lobsters are also, especially in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, So ...

(lobster) feet or pincers sprout from each triton's head. In the second fragment, a youthful ichthyocentaur proceeds ahead of a mounted Venus marina; the ichthyocentaur holds two objects difficult to identify.

Literary examples

One late literary example that has been noted is the poem by

Claudian Claudius Claudianus, known in English as Claudian (; c. 370 – c. 404 AD), was a Latin poet associated with the court of the Roman emperor Honorius at Mediolanum (Milan), and particularly with the general Stilicho. His work, written almost ent ...

(d. 404), the '' Epithalamium'' for the wedding of Honorius and Maria, in which Venus rides Triton on her back as her whole procession heads for the wedding. Here Triton is described as follows "The dread monster uprose from the abyss; his billowing hair swept his shoulders; hoofs of cloven horn grown round with bristles sprang from where his fishy tail joined his man's body".

Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (12 February 1845, in Göttingen – 9 March 1923, in Dresden) was a German classical scholar. He specialized in studies of Greek and Roman mythology. He received his education at the Universities of Göttingen and Leip ...

observed that this Triton (with

cloven hooves A cloven hoof, cleft hoof, divided hoof or split hoof is a hoof split into two toes. This is found on members of the mammalian order Even-toed ungulate, Artiodactyla. Examples of mammals that possess this type of hoof are cattle, deer, pigs, ant ...

) is being described as an ichthyocentaur subtype with a bull's forelegs.

Renaissance period

Conrad Gessner's "sea-satyr" or "sea-Pan" was also described as an "ichthyocentaur" or "sea-devil" in his chapter on tritons in his '' Historia animalium IV'' (1558).Gesner, Konrad (1558) ''Historiae animalium'' , p. 1197; (1604 ed.
p. 1001
In the German translated edition, this creature is called "''Meerteuffel'' " or "sea devil".Gesner, Konrad (1558) , p. 153 This "marine daemon" (german: Meerteufel), with other names such as "sea Pan monster", "monstrous sea satyr" or "centaur-fish" has also been used on heraldic devices. via

EEBO The Text Creation Partnership (TCP) is a not-for-profit organization based in the library of the University of Michigan . Its purpose is to produce large-scale full-text electronic resources (especially in the humanities) on behalf of both member i ...

Explanatory notes

References

;Citation ;Bibliography * * * * * * . , L'Erma di Bretschneider.

External links

Theoi Greek Mythology: IKHTHYOKENTAUROI
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20101216143542/http://mythindex.com/greek-mythology/I/Ichthyocentaurus.html GREEK MYTH INDEX: ICHTHYOCENTAURbr>The Metropolitan Museum of Art: WORKS OF ART: ASIAN ART: Marine Deity (Triton or Ichthyocentaur)
{{Authority control Centaurs Greek legendary creatures Mythological aquatic creatures Horses in mythology Mythological human hybrids