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In late Classical Greek art, an ichthyocentaur () was a sea being with the upper body of a human, the lower anterior half and forelegs of a horse, and the tailed posterior half of a fish.
The earliest example dates to the 2nd century BC, among the in the Pergamon Altar. There are further examples of Aphros () and/or Bythos (), the personifications of the sea's foam and abyss respectively, depicted as ichthyocentaurs in and .
The term ichthyocentaur is of late coinage, attributable to the Byzantine writer John Tzetzes in the 12th century, and thus they are also referred as sea-centaur.
Ichthyocentaur comes from two different words, ichthyo- and centaur. Ichthyo- is an adjective stem from Greek (ιχθύς) "fish"; centaur, from Greek (κένταυρος), a creature from classical mythology that has a man's upper body attached to a horse's body and legs.
Centaur-Tritons is another name for ichthyocentaurs, noted in a 19th-century reference.
Ichthyocentaurs are sometimes portrayed with a pair of pincered arms (similar to a lobster's clawed arms) emerging out of their heads.
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's collection, now housed in the annex named the Zeugma Mosaic Museum.
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 Silenus companions of the god Dionysus after his company was driven into the sea by King Lycurgus of Thrace.
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 Cronus and the nymph Philyra ( Bibliotheke 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.
A pair of marine thiasos fresco fragments in Herculaneum 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 (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.
This "marine daemon" (), with other names such as "sea Pan monster", "monstrous sea satyr" or "centaur-fish" has also been used on . via EEBO
Greek art
The earliest datable depiction of an ichthyocentaur is found in the relief sculptures of the Pergamon Altar (2nd century BC), although the inscription labels the figure as a "Triton". and note 140, cited by , note 84. 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.
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", Personification) and Bythos ("Sea-Depths").
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.. Fig. 5; Fig. 7 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".. Fig. 9
Aphros in glosses
Aphros is glossed as a king of Ancient Libya and the progenitor of the Aphroi (or Carthaginians) according to the entry in the Byzantine Empire lexicon, the Suda." 1=http://www.stoa.org/sol-entries/alpha/4655", 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.
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. and Plates 97–99
Literary examples
One late literary example that has been noted is the poem by Claudian (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 observed that this Triton (with cloven hoof) 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
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p. 1197; (1604 ed.) p. 1001. In the German translated edition, this creature is called " Meerteuffel " or "sea devil".Gesner, Konrad (1558)
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/a>, p. 153
See also
Explanatory notes
Steven Lattimore (1976). 9780917956027, Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles. . ISBN 9780917956027
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/a>, L'Erma di Bretschneider.
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