Triton \'tr!-t 3 n\ In Greek mythology, a merman and a demigod of the sea. He was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. According to Hesiod, Triton lived in a golden palace in the depths of the sea. He was represented as human down to the waist, which tapered into a fish tail, and he had a spiral conch shell that he blew to calm or raise the waves. Some tradi¬ tions held that there were many Tritons.
Triton \'tri-t 3 n\ Largest of Neptune’s moons. Its diameter is about 1,680 mi (2,700 km), nearly 80% that of Earth’s Moon. Unique among the large
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1940 I triumph ► trompe I'oeil
moons of the solar system, Triton moves in a retrograde orbit, opposite the direction of Neptune’s rotation. Its orbital period of 5.9 Earth days is the same as its rotation period; as a result it always keeps the same face toward Neptune. It has a very thin atmosphere of nitrogen and methane and a sur¬ face temperature of -390 °F (-235 °C). Its surface is covered with enor¬ mous expanses of ice sculpted with fissures, puckers, and ridge-crossed depressions. Geyser-like plumes observed by the Voyager 2 spacecraft may be gas venting through fissures when the surface is warmed by sunlight. Triton appears to have formed elsewhere in the solar system and to have been gravitationally captured by Neptune in the planet’s early history.
triumph Ancient Roman ritual procession honouring a general who had won a major battle and killed at least 5,000 of the enemy. Senators and magistrates were followed by sacrificial animals, captured loot, and cap¬ tives in chains. The general, in a purple-and-gold tunic, rode in a chariot, holding a laurel branch in his right hand and an ivory sceptre in his left, while a slave held a golden crown over his head. Lastly came the soldiers, who sang songs. Under the empire only the emperor and members of his family celebrated triumphs.
triumphal arch Monumental structure, originating in Rome, pierced by at least one arched passageway and erected to honour an important person or commemorate a significant event. It usually spanned a street or roadway and was built astride the line of march of a victorious army dur¬ ing its triumphal procession. Most were built during the empire period. The basic form consisted of two piers connected by an arch and crowned by a superstructure, or attic, that served as a base for statues and bore inscriptions. The large central arch could also be flanked by two smaller arches. The Roman triumphal arch had a facade of marble columns, and the archway and sides were adorned with relief sculpture. Among those built since the Renaissance is the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
triumvirate \tri-'9m-vir-9t\ In ancient Rome, usually a board of three officials who assisted higher magistrates in judicial functions, oversaw festival banquets, or ran the mint. The First Triumvirate (60 bc) of Pompey, Julius Caesar, and Crassus was an informal group of three strong leaders with no sanctioned powers. The Second Triumvirate (43 bc), consisting of Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian (later Augustus) —formally tresviri rei publicae constituendae (“triumvirate for organizing the state”)—held absolute dictatorial power.
Troas Vtro-,as\ or the Troad Ancient region surrounding the city of Troy. It consisted mainly of the northwestern projection of Anatolia into the Aegean Sea. It extended from the Gulf of Edremit to the Sea of Mar¬ mara and the Dardanelles and from the Ida mountain range to the Aegean. St. Paul visited the region on his missionary journeys.
Trobriand Islands Vtro-bre-,and\ or Kiriwina Islands
\,kir-9-'we-n9\ Group of small coral islands, Solomon Sea, South Pacific Ocean, Papua New Guinea. The islands are low-lying with coral reefs. The group has a total land area of about 170 sq mi (440 sq km). The largest, Kiriwina, is an atoll 30 mi (48 km) long and 3-10 mi (5-16 km) wide, covered largely with swamp; it served as an air and naval base for the Allies in 1943. Anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski conducted research among the Trobriand islanders 1915-18.
Trobriander Any of the Melanesian people of the Kiriwina (Trobriand) Islands, lying off eastern New Guinea. Their subsistence is based on yams and other vegetables, domesticated pigs, and fish. Trobrianders are noted for their elaborate intertribal trading system, the kula, by which red shell necklaces are traded between permanent trading partners in a clockwise direction around a ring of islands; white shell bracelets are traded coun¬ terclockwise. Among the Trobrianders, wealth is extremely important as a sign of power. They were the subject of highly influential studies by BRONistAW Malinowski.
Troilus and Cressida \'tr6i-l9s...'kre-si-d9\ Lovers in medieval romance, based on characters from Greek mythology. In the Iliad, Troilus, son of Priam and Hecuba, is dead before the Trojan War starts. In non- Homeric legends he was said to have been killed during the war by Achil¬ les. He was first turned into a romantic figure in the Middle Ages, when he was portrayed as an innocent young lover betrayed by the faithless Cressida, who abandoned him for the Greek warrior Diomedes. The first version of the story was written by the 12th-century trouvere Benoit de Sainte-Maure in the poem “Roman de Troie.” More famous versions include Giovanni Boccaccio’s “II Filostrato,” Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Troilus and Criseyde,” and William Shakespeare’s drama Troilus and Cressida.
Trojan asteroids Two groups of asteroids named for heroes of Greece and Troy in Homer’s Iliad. These objects revolve around the Sun at the Lagrangian points (see Joseph-Louis Lagrange) in Jupiter’s orbit. Achil¬ les, the first, was discovered in 1906. About 650 are known, but their actual number is estimated in the thousands. The term Trojan also applies to objects occupying the corresponding Lagrangian points in the orbits of other planets. Two such asteroids were discovered in Mars’s orbit in the 1990s.
Trojan War Mostly legendary conflict between the Greeks and the people of Troy in western Asia Minor. It was dated by later Greeks to the 12th or 13th century bc. It is celebrated in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, in Greek tragedy, and in Roman literature. In Homer’s account the Trojan prince Paris ran off with the beautiful Helen, wife of Meneaus of Sparta, whose brother Agamemnon then led a Greek expedition to retrieve her. The war lasted 10 years; its participants included Hector, Achilles, Priam, Odysseus, and Ajax. Its end resulted from a ruse: The Greeks built a large wooden horse in which a raiding party hid. When the Greeks pretended to leave, the Trojans brought the horse into the walled city and the Greeks swarmed out, opening the gates to their comrades and sacking Troy, kill¬ ing the men and enslaving the women. The extent of the legend’s actual historical content is not known; excavations have revealed human habi¬ tation from 3000 bc to ad 1200, and there is evidence of violent destruc¬ tion about 1250 bc.
trolley car See streetcar
Trollope Vtra-tapV Anthony (b. April 24, 1815, London, Eng.—d. Dec. 6, 1882, London) English nov¬ elist. He worked for the post office in England and Ireland from 1834 to 1867. Beginning in 1844 he pro¬ duced 47 novels, writing mainly before breakfast at a fixed rate of 1,000 words an hour. His best-loved and most famous works are the six interconnected Barsetshire novels, including Barchester Towers (1857) and The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867). Depicting the social scene in an imaginary English county, they abound in memorable characters and atmosphere. The Palliser novels, dealing with political issues and fea¬ turing the character Plantagenet Pal¬ liser, include the sharply satirical The Eustace Diamonds (1872). Other works, such as He Knew He Was Right (1869), show great psycho¬ logical penetration. The Way We Live Now (1875), with its ironic view of the Victorian upper classes, is especially highly regarded.