Bident

A black-figured amphora from Corneto (Etruscan Tarquinia) depicts a scene from the hunt for the Calydonian boar, part of a series of adventures that took place in the general area.

[12] A kylix found at Vulci in ancient Etruria was formerly interpreted as depicting Pluto (Greek: Πλούτων Plouton) with a bident.

[13] On Lydian coins that show Plouton abducting Persephone in his four-horse chariot, the god holds his characteristic scepter, the ornamented point of which has sometimes been interpreted as a bident.

[14] Other visual representations of the bident on ancient objects appear to have been either modern-era reconstructions, or in the possession of figures not securely identified as the ruler of the underworld.

In ancient Italy, thunder and lightning were read as signs of divine will, wielded by the sky god Jupiter in three forms or degrees of severity (see manubia).

Dis (the Roman equivalent of Greek Plouton) uses a three-pronged spear to drive off Hercules as he attempts to invade Pylos.

Pluto, with Cerberus at his side, is shown holding the bident in the mythological ceiling mural painted by Raphael's workshop for the Villa Farnesina (the Loggia di Psiche, 1517–18).

Some writers have confused the two figures; Neptune's identity is confirmed by his embrace of the Hippocamp – the "sea horse" with fins for forelegs, and whose markings appear to repeat the trident in a stylized, perhaps symbolic, form.)