Part of a mature man’s torso the lowest section of which preserves the beginning of a fish’s or snake’s tail. This is the reason that the man is identified as a Triton, albeit some researchers recognise him as Kekrops. The sculpture’s back side is smooth and rounded.

This Triton sculpture is believed to have supported Athena's chariot. Another sculpture (Ακρ. 965) believed to have been placed beneath Poseidon's chariot in the right part of the pediment is thought to have had the same function. The two Tritons may have been an evocation to the flood provoked by Poseidon after he was defeated by Athena.

The torso fragment was found during the excavations conducted in 1835 near the west façade of the Parthenon. It appears to have fallen off from the pediment in 1687 during the Parthenon bombardment by the Venetians under the general Francesco Morosini. This is the reason why it was not taken by Thomas Bruce, lord of Elgin, who was in Greece between 1801-1804, when the country was under Ottoman rule, and forcibly detached most of the sculptures of the pediment still in their original position.

The west pediment of the Parthenon portrays the dispute between Athena and Poseidon regarding who would become the divine protector of Athens. The contest was held on the Acropolis in the presence of the city’s mythical kings Kekrops and Erechtheus and other local heroes, who as judges decided the outcome in favour of Athena, preferring her gift, the olive tree, to the salty water offered by Poseidon. The centre of the scene is occupied by the two protagonists and their chariots whereas the pediments' corners contain the personifications of two rivers that flowed in ancient Athens, Ilissos and Kephissos. Due to the misadventures suffered by the monument over the following centuries many sculptures have been lost, some survive in mutilated form whereas others are represented only in small fragments.

The two Parthenon pediments are adorned with about fifty oversized statues. The sculptures, perfectly worked even on their unseen, rear sides, present scenes from the myths of the goddess Athena.