Amphitrite
Queen of the Sea
Amphitrite is a Nereid, the daughter of Nereus and Doris, and the Queen of the Mediterranean Se. She is the wife of Poseidon, but when he first approached her, she fled from him and hid in the furthest reaches of the sea. Poseidon sent a dolphin to find her and convince her to return; she agreed, but only under the condition that Poseidon would marry her and make her the Queen of the Sea. He did so happily, and set the dolphin in the stars as the constellation Delphinus in gratitude.
The second half of her name is an old Proto-Greek word for the sea, found also in the name of her son, Triton. The first half means “both sides”, so she is the goddess with the sea on both sides of her. The Romans called her Salacia, from the Latin word sal, or salt—she was the goddess of salt water.
She may have been the goddess and ruler of the sea before Poseidon was repurposed to be an ocean god; early references to Amphitrite as the Queen of the Sea, dancing with her Nereids, predate any mention of Poseidon regarding the ocean. She was known by the epithets “loud-moaning”, “liquid-footed”, and “ox-eyed”; the latter perhaps an earlier echo of her husband’s “Bull from the Sea” title.
Later, when artwork of Amphitrite arrived, from ancient urns to the Renaissance, she was shown as driving a chariot next to that of her husband, usually pulled by seahorses, with a crown made of crab claws. She bore Poseidon a son, Triton, a conch-blowing god of the sea depths who was usually shown as a merman of some kind—single-fish-tailed, double-fish-tailed, or serpent-tailed.
Like Poseidon, she is good at helping people identify and come to terms with their emotions. However, while he is best with men and their hearts, she is excellent for women who center their hearts around their partners, and must find a balance between their beloveds and their own lives.
