Trident
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see Trident (disambiguation).
A trident (French for "three-teeth") is a three pronged staff or spear. The French word's origin is from Latin tridens or tridentis, from tri "three" and dentes "teeth". It was used by fishermen to catch fish. As a weapon, it was also used by the retiarii, Roman gladiators, who used a net to wrap their adversary and a trident to kill him. In the southern United States, this type of spear, called a gig, is used for catching bullfrogs, flounder, and sometimes carp. This kind of fishing is referred to as gigging.
Information on real forked spears can be found in the article on the military fork.
[edit] Symbolic use
From the fishing origins, the trident is often associated with Poseidon, the god of the sea in Greek mythology. By hitting the earth with his trident, Poseidon created the horse and some water sources in Greece. The Roman Gods, such as Neptune (parallel to Poseidon) also used a trident as a staff, and created earthquakes and new bodies of water. A good example can be seen in Gian Bernini's Neptune and Triton.
A trident has also references as:
- The United States Navy Special Warfare Badge, worn by members of the United States Navy SEALs, is officially known as a Trident, while jokingly called a Budweiser by some SEALs.
- The Trident is the symbol of the Swedish Coastal Rangers, Kustjägarna.
- As a symbol, the trident in the centrer of the flag of Barbados - Symbolic of the country's independence from the United Kingdom. It was also adopted by the Russian anti-Soviet revolutionary organization NTS as the "forks of the people's anger". A highly stylised trident, known as the tryzub, constitutes a part of the Ukrainian coat of arms.
- The trident or Trishula is also the missile weapon of the Hindu god Shiva, and it often includes a crossed stabiliser to facilitate its flight when thrown.
- In DC Comics, the superhero Blue Devil carries a trident.
- In Reboot, AI AndrAIa uses a trident
- In Christian mythology, the trident is associated with the Devil. Depictions of the Devil commonly indicate a trident as his sceptre.
- The Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati uses a trident in its company logo.
- It was King Triton's weapon of choice in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) and the weapon of choice of Diana from the PAX network's made for TV movie, Mermaids (2003).
- Trident is the name of the US Navy's Fleet Ballistic Missile program, consisting of Ohio class submarines and Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
- Trident also refers to the Royal Navy's nuclear Ballistic Missile system, consisting of Vanguard class submarines and Trident II D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
- The BSD Daemon carries a trident to symbolize the forking of processes in an operating system.
- Trident (band) is a three-girl pop band from Romania.
- Hawker-Siddeley HS121 Trident was a British jet airliner produced by Hawker Siddley at Hatfield in the 1960's; various version were produced from the Trident 1 to the Trident 3B.
- In the video game Golden Sun: The Lost Age Felix and party collects the three pieces of the Trident of Ankhol, which is the only item able to break through Poseidon's impenetrable shield.
- In the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Brick Tamland uses a trident to kill a rival.
- In one of the Bill Brasky sketches on Saturday Night Live, Bill Brasky is said to have killed Wolfman Jack with a trident.
- In the video game Vagrant Story, it is described as "A forked pole are with three tines."
- In The Legend of Zelda, a video game franchise, the villain Ganon uses a trident called the Trident of Power. This is seen in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
[edit] See also
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