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Oceanus

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Oceanus, with his wife, Tethys, ruled the seas before Poseidon. Roman mosaic from Zeugma, c. 1st–2nd centuries AD
Oceanus (Greek Ωκεανός, Okeanos) was believed to be the world-ocean in classical antiquity, which the ancient Romans and Greeks considered to be an enormous river encircling the world. Strictly speaking, Okeanos was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere (oikoumene).[1] In Greek mythology, this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, a son of Uranus and Gaia. In Hellenistic and Roman mosaics, this Titan was often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns, and the lower torso of a serpent (cf. Typhon). On a fragmentary archaic vessel (British Museum 1971.11-1.1) of ca 580 BCE, among the gods arriving at the wedding of Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis, is a fish-tailed Oceanus, with a fish in one hand and a serpent in the other, gifts of bounty and prophecy. In Roman mosaics he might carry a steering-oar and cradle a ship.

Some scholars believe that Oceanus originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. However, as geography became more accurate, Oceanus came to represent the stranger, more unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean (also called the "Ocean Sea"), while the newcomer of a later generation, Poseidon, ruled over the Mediterranean.

Oceanus' consort is his sister Tethys, and from their union came the ocean nymphs, also known as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world, fountains, and lakes[2]. From Cronus, of the race of Titans, the Olympian gods have their birth, and Hera mentions twice in Iliad book xiv her intended journey "to the ends of the generous earth on a visit to Okeanos, whence the gods have risen, and Tethys our mother who brought me up kindly in their own house." [3]

In most variations of the war between the Titans and the Olympians, or Titanomachy, Oceanus, along with Prometheus and Themis, did not take the side of his fellow Titans against the Olympians, but instead withdrew from the conflict. In most variations of this myth, Oceanus also refused to side with Cronus in the latter's revolt against their father, Uranus.

In the Iliad, the rich iconography of Achilles' shield, which was fashioned by Hephaestus, is enclosed, as the world itself was believed to be, by Oceanus:

''"Then, running round the shield-rim, triple-ply,
''he pictured all the might of the Ocean stream."


When Odysseus and Nestor walk together along the shore of the sounding sea (Iliad ix.182) their prayers are addressed "to the great Sea-god who girdles the world." It is to Oceanus, not to Poseidon, that their thoughts are directed.

Invoked in passing by poets and figured as the father of rivers and streams, thus the progenitor of river gods, Oceanus appears only once in myth, as a representative of the archaic world that Heracles constantly threatened and bested.[4] Herakles forced the loan from Helios of his golden bowl, in order to cross the wide expanse of the Ocean on his trip to the Hesperides. When Oceanus tossed the bowl, Heracles threatened him and stilled his waves. The journey of Heracles in the sun-bowl upon Oceanus was a favored theme among painters of Attic pottery.

In cosmography

Oceanus appears in Hellenic cosmography as well as myth. Cartographers continued to represent the encircling equatorial stream much as it had appeared on Achilles' shield.[1]

Though Herodotus was skeptical about the physical existence of Oceanus, he rejected snowmelt as a cause of the annual flood of the Nile river; according to his translator and interpreter, Livio Catullo Stecchini, he left unsettled the question of an equatorial Nile, since the geography of Sub-Saharan Africa was unknown to him.

See also

Notes

1. ^ See Stecchini, "Ancient Cosmology".
2. ^ The late classical poet Nonnus mentioned "the Limnai [Lakes)], liquid daughters of Okeanos." (Nonnus, Dionysiaca 6.352)
3. ^ ''Iliad xiv. 200 and 244.
4. ^ The Suda identifies Okeanos and Tethys as the parents of the two Kerkopes, whom Heracles also bested.

Reference

External links

Greek deities series
Primordial deities | Titans | Aquatic deities | Chthonic deities
Titans
Titanes: Oceanus | Hyperion | Coeus | Cronus | Crius | Iapetus
Titanides: Tethys | Theia | Phoebe | Rhea | Mnemosyne | Themis
Sons of Iapetus: Atlas | Prometheus | Epimetheus | Menoetius
Aquatic deities
Poseidon | Oceanus | Ceto | Nereus | Glaucus | Thetis | Amphitrite
Tethys | Triton | Proteus | Phorcys | Pontus | Oceanids | Nereids | Naiads
Ancient Greek refers to the second stage in the history of the Greek language[1] as it existed during the Archaic (9th–6th centuries BC) and Classical (5th–4th centuries BC) periods in Greece.
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
The World Ocean, world ocean, or global ocean
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Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
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Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea.
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The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. 750 BC[1] (the archaic period) to 146 BC (the Roman conquest). It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western Civilization.
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river is a natural waterway that transits water through a landscape from higher to lower elevations. It is an integral component of the water cycle. The water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge (as seen at baseflow
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Earth's oceans
(World Ocean)
An ocean (from Ωκεανός, Okeanos
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equator is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole. It thus divides the Earth into a Northern Hemisphere and a Southern Hemisphere. The equators of other planets and astronomical bodies are defined analogously.
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Hemisphere may refer to: As half of the Earth:
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Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices.
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Titans (Greek: Τιτάν Titan; plural: Τιτάνες Titanes
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Uranus (IPA: /ˈjʊərənəs, jʊˈreɪnəs/) is the Latinized form of Ouranos (Οὐρανός
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For other uses, see Gaia.


Gaia (pronounced /'geɪ.ə/ or /'gaɪ.
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Serpent is a word of Latin origin (serpens, serpentis) that is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some
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Typhon (ancient Greek: Τυφῶν), also Typhoeus (Τυφωεύς), Typhaon (
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Pēleús (Greek: Πηλεύς) was the son of Endeïs and Aeacus, King of Aegina, and father of Achilles. He and his brother Telamon were friends with Heracles, serving in his expedition against the Amazons and his war against King Laomedon.
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Thetis (ancient Greek Θέτις) is a sea nymph, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of "the ancient one of the seas," Nereus, and Doris (Hesiod, Theogony), a grand-daughter of Tethys.
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Mediterranean is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia. It covers an approximate area of 2.
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Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres (41.1 million square miles), it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface.
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This article is about the Greek god.

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Tethys (Greek Τηθύς), daughter of Uranus and Gaia (Hesiod, Theogony lines 136, 337 and Bibliotheke 1.2) was a Titaness and sea goddess who was both sister and wife of Oceanus.
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nymph is any member of a large class of female entities in human form, that is either bound to a particular location, or landform, or is part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, generally Artemis.
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In Greek and Roman mythology, the Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. One of these many daughters was also said to have been the wife of the god Poseidon, typically named as Amphitrite.
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Cronus (Ancient Greek Κρόνος, Krónos), also called Cronos or Kronos, was the leader and the youngest of the first generation of Titans, divine descendants of Gaia, the earth, and Uranus, the sky.
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Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon (Greek: Δωδεκάθεον
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In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera, (Greek Ήρα, IPA pronunciation [ˈhiːrə]; or Here (
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iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display.

Description

Main specifications:
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Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon (Greek: Δωδεκάθεον
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Titanomachy, or War of the Titans (Greek: Τιτανομαχία), was the eleven-year series of battles fought between the two races of deities long before the existence of mankind: the Titans,
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