Trident in popular culture

Last Judgment. In this painting, Jacob de Backer depicts the Devil as often seen in art, wielding a trident as his scepter and personal weapon.

Tridents have occurred many times in popular culture.

In companies

Psi, the Greek letter and symbol of Psychology which has a format similar to a trident.

• The all inclusive resort company Club Med uses a trident in its company logo.
• Hawker Siddeley Trident was a British jet airliner produced by Hawker Siddley at Hatfield in the 1960s, named after the tri-jet engine configuration.
• The Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati uses a trident as its company logo.
• The Trident was a popular restaurant in Sausalito, California during the 1960s and 70s; it was owned by the folk group The Kingston Trio and operated by their manager Frank Werber.

In media

Anime/Manga

• In the anime and manga series Bleach, the character Kaien Shiba wields a zanpakuto dubbed Nejibana that turns into a trident when in its initial release form.
• In InuYasha, Naraku forges a trident from his own bones and gives it to Abi-Hime.
• In the anime and manga Katekyo Hitman REBORN!, Mukuro Rokudo and Chrome Dokuro use a trident as their weapon; the mosquitoes of Doctor Shamal also pierce their targets with a trident, earning him the nickname "Trident Shamal" in the underground world of mafia.
• In Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, the XXXG-01S2 "Altron" piloted by Chang Wufei uses a beam trident.
• In Ronin Warriors, Cye of the Torrent uses a trident capable of firing a high-powered beam of water.

Comics

In DC Comics:

• The superhero Aquaman sometimes carries a trident. As he is one of the more popular heroes in comics, he and his trident often undergo design changes, sometimes to the point where his trident gains or loses points. His current trident is 5-pointed, making it a penta-dent. However, its powers usually do not change, mainly consisting of hydrokinesis, energy dispersion, weather manipulation, and the ability to turn living beings into other objects.
• The superhero Blue Devil carried a trident of his own scientific design, equipped with two rockets that could propel himself and another being around quickly. He now wields the Trident of Lucifer, a mystical trident that can reveal demons and banish them to Hell.

In Marvel Comics:

• The superhero Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner rarely carries a trident. Despite his origins lying in Atlantis, Namor rarely, if ever, uses this trident, which was bestowed upon the Atlanteans by Poseidon/Neptune himself. It has many unexplored powers, including hydrokinesis, magical beams of varying colors and varying effects, and a final power to transform anyone or anything into anything else with added properties.

• The Marvel Comics anti-hero, Daimon Hellstrom, The Son of Satan, constantly wields a trident by which he can briefly fly through the air or paralyze opponents by emitting hellfire, sometimes referred to as soulfire. Hellfire does not physically burn. Instead, pain is inflicted by sinking deep down into, and searing, one's soul.^[1]

Film

Trident, Burmese, 18th century

• In Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (film) (1988), the idiot-prince Ruprecht (Steve Martin) insists on holding a trident at the dinner table.
• The trident was King Triton's weapon of choice in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989 film).
• The trident was the weapon of choice of Diana from the ION Television/PAX network's made for TV movie, Mermaids (2003).
• In The Da Vinci Code (2003), there is some discussion about the symbolic use of the trident.
• In The Matrix Reloaded (2003), Neo fights the Merovingian's henchmen. One wields a trident, but is presumably killed by Neo.
• In the movie Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Brick Tamland uses a trident to kill a rival, later uttering the famous phrase, "There were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident".
• In Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), a trident is present when Percy arrives at his cabin. Also, in the end of his battle with Luke, Percy pins him in the sea with a trident made from solid water, saying: "Yeah. I think I am the son of Poseidon.".
• The trident of Poseidon was the weapon of choice to defeat the Titans in Immortals.
• The trident was featured in the Hunger Games as Finnick Odair's personal weapon. It is symbolic of Finnick Odair's origin from the fishing district, however, due to its customized design, it is not actually a trident, but rather a quadrident.

Gaming

• In Age of Mythology, the objective for the second mission involves getting a Poseidon statue's trident back to Atlantis.
• In the popular role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, the trident is available as a weapon.
• Jiang Wei, from Dynasty Warriors, uses a trident called "Blink".
• In the game Dynasty Warriors 6, both Taishi Ci and Cao Ren use tridents.
• In Final Fantasy VII, the Trident is an equippable weapon obtained by Cid Highwind.
• In Final Fantasy XII, the Trident is an equippable weapon imbued with the power of ice.
• In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, the Trident is a rare polearm obtainable only by combining items in the Bazaar. It can only be purchased once per combination.
• In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, the trident is one of the more powerful spear weapons.
• In Friday the 13th: The Game, the trident is the primary weapon of the Jason Voorhees variant as designed by Tom Savini.
• In 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.
• The harpoon of Smoke (Mortal Kombat), in Mortal Kombat 3, is a trident. Smoke's trident does not reappear in subsequent games. In his cyborg appearance in Mortal Kombat X as downloadable character Tri-Borg (combined with fellow cyborgs Cyrax and Sektor), a similar move appears, named Trident, however, due to this Smoke's cyborg body, the polearm aspect of the trident is replaced by 3 hooks that are used like projectiles, thus making this new move not a trident.
• Hydron, from Red Earth (video game), carries a huge trident as a weapon.
• In the MMORPG RuneScape, the Penance Trident is an equippable magical staff the can kill certain opponents in 1 hit. The Trident of the Swamp and the Trident of the Seas also appear as equippable magical staves that must be charged, however, they fire faster than other staves.
• In Soul Calibur, the edge master weapon of Seung Mina is a trident.
• In several games in The Legend of Zelda series, the primary antagonist, Ganon, uses the Trident of Power as his weapon of choice.
• In March 1979, Stern Electronics released Trident, a nautical themed game based on the mythological take on the three pointed spear.
• In League of Legends, The champion Fizz uses a trident as his weapon.
• In SMITE, Poseidon appears as a playable character, using his famous trident to fling water projectiles.
• In Undertale, King Asgore wields a red trident during battle.

Literature

Poseidon sculpture holding a trident

• In the novels Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010) from the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, the fisherman and warrior Finnick Odair specializes in the trident as a weapon.
• In Drowned Wednesday, part of the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix, Wednesday's Key is a trident.
• In the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series of novels by Rick Riordan, as in Greek mythology, the trident is a symbol of the Olympian Glory; it appears over a demigod's head when Poseidon claims the individual as his own. Due to a rule that Zeus, Poseidon and Hades have agreed to, the three generally refuse to have children as past demigods with paternal descent from the three gods have brought war and strife to the world before. Despite this, Camp Half-Blood, the premier camp for demigods, still has cabins for all demigods who belong to any of the three, as with other gods, major or minor, although these cabins are empty until the series' events, cleaned by a skeleton crew of other demigods. During the series, the Poseidon cabin has only one resident, Percy Jackson himself.

Television

• GokaiSilver from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger fights with a traditional trident, reflecting his image as a mariner.
• Triceraranger/Blue Ranger from Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger/Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is armed with a pair of tridents with circular ends that can join together.
• In the Masters of the Universe toy line and cartoon series, Spikor, an evil henchman of Skeletor, has an extendable trident in place of his left hand; the three points fire lasers.
• In ReBoot, AI AndrAIa uses a trident.
• In one of the Bill Brasky sketches on Saturday Night Live, Bill Brasky is said to have killed Wolfman Jack with a trident.
• In seaQuest DSV, the logo of the United Earth Oceans Organization is a trident centered over an image of the earth surrounded by a wreath.
• In the series The Big Bang Theory, the character Sheldon Cooper thinks that forks with three tines are actually tridents and will not eat with them.
• In the cartoon series Ulysses 31, the Tridents were spacecraft used by the Gods of Olympus to attack Ulysses' ship, The Odyssey.
• In Warehouse 13, In the Season 2 finale, H.G. Wells wants to use the Minoan Trident to cause a massive volcanic eruption to rid the Earth of humanity so the planet can heal and start over.
• In the series Mako: Island of Secrets, the Trident was a powerful artifact that was used by mermen to start a war with mermaids until it was sealed in a cave on Mako. It was designed to counter everything a mermaid did, drain the power of their Moon Rings, and suck the life out of them.

In military

• 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; it is so named because of its role in the three-pronged Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) nuclear war plan, based around sea-launched SLBMs first, followed by land-launched ICBMs, and lastly free-fall nuclear bombs delivered by air from strategic bombers
• 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 name was chosen for the same reason as the US Trident.

In other uses

A USB Series “A” plug, the most common USB plug with the trident symbol visible.

• The USB logo is a stylized trident. (See photo)
• The trident symbol, stylized to look like the letter M, was the logo for the Seattle Mariners baseball franchise in the 1980s. A variant is currently used by a Mariners minor league affiliate, the Everett AquaSox.

References