Trito
or TRITOGENEIA (Τριτώ or Τριτογένεια and Τριτογενής), a surname of Athena (Hom. Il. 4.515, Od. 3.378; Hes. Theoy. 924), which is explained in different ways. Some derive it from lake Tritonis in Libya, near which she is said to have been born (Eurip. Ion. 872; Apollod. 1.3.6; comp. Hdt. 4.150, 179); others from the stream Triton near Alalcomenae in Boeotia, where she was worshipped, and where according to some statements she was also born (Paus. 9.33.4; comp. Horn. Il. 4.8); the grammarians, lastly, derive the name from τριτώ which, in the dialect of the Athamanians, is said to signify " head," so that it would be the goddess born out of the head of her father. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 4.1310; comp. Horn. Hymn. 28. 4; Hes. Th. 924.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.