AMPHITRITE  , in

ancient Greek mythology, a sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus (or Oceanus) and wife of Poseidon . She was so entirely confined in her authority to the sea and the creatures in it, that she was never associated with her husband either for purposes of worship or in works of art, except when he was to be distinctly regarded as the god who controlled the sea . She was one of the Nereids, and distinguishable from the others only by her queenly attributes . It was said that Poseidon saw her first dancing at Naxos among the other Nereids, and carried her off (Schol. on Od. iii . 91) . But in another version of the myth, she then fled from him to the farthest ends of the sea, where the dolphin of Poseidon found her, and was rewarded by being placed among the stars (Eratosthenes, Catast . 31) . In works of art she is represented either enthroned beside him, or driving with him in a chariot drawn by sea-horses or other fabulous creatures of the deep, and attended by Tritons and Nereids . In poetry her name is often used for the sea .