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In Greek mythology, Oceanus was a Titans son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods and the Oceanids, as well as being the great river which encircled the entire world.
According to Hesiod, there were three thousand (i.e. innumerable) river gods.Hard, p. 40; Hesiod, Theogony 364–368, which says there are "as many" rivers as the "three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean", and at 330–345, names 25 of these river gods: Nilus, Alpheus, Eridanos, Strymon, Maiandros, Danube, Rioni River, Rhesus, Achelous, Nessos, Rhodius, Haliacmon, Heptaporus, Granicus, Aesepus, Simoeis, Peneus, Hermus, Caicus, Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Evenus, Aldeskos, and Scamander. Compare with Acusilaus fr. 1 Fowler =, which says that from Oceanus and Tethys, "spring three thousand rivers". These included: Achelous, the god of the Achelous River, the largest river in Greece, who gave his daughter in marriage to AlcmaeonApollodorus, 3.7.5. and was defeated by Heracles in a wrestling contest for the right to marry Deianira;Apollodorus, 1.8.1, 2.7.5. Alpheus, who fell in love with the nymph Arethusa and pursued her to Syracuse where she was transformed into a spring by Artemis;Smith, s.v. "Alpheius". and Scamander who fought on the side of the Troy during the Trojan War and got offended when Achilles polluted his waters with a large number of Trojan corpses, overflowed his banks nearly drowning Achilles.Homer, Iliad 20.74, 21.211 ff..
According to Hesiod, there were also three thousand Oceanids.Hesiod, Theogony 346–366, which names 41 Oceanids: Peitho, Admete, Ianthe, Electra, Doris, Prymno, Urania, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, Callirhoe, Zeuxo, Clytie, Idyia, Pasithoe, Plexaura, Galaxaura, Dione, Melobosis, Thoe, Polydora, Cerceis, Plouto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea, Menestho, Europa, Metis, Eurynome, Telesto, Chryseis, Asia, Calypso, Eudora, Tyche, Amphirho, Ocyrhoe, and Styx. These included: Metis, Zeus' first wife, whom Zeus impregnated with Athena and then swallowed;Hesiod, Theogony 886–900; Apollodorus, 1.3.6. Eurynome, Zeus' third wife, and mother of the Charites;Hesiod, Theogony 907–909; Apollodorus, 1.3.1. Other sources give the Charites other parents, see Smith, s.v. "Charis". Doris, the wife of Nereus and mother of the Nereids;Hesiod, Theogony 240–264; Apollodorus, 1.2.7. Callirhoe, the wife of Chrysaor and mother of Geryon;Hesiod, Theogony 286–288; Apollodorus, 2.5.10. Clymene, the wife of Iapetus, and mother of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus, and Epimetheus;Hesiod, Theogony 351, however according to Apollodorus, 1.2.3, another Oceanid, Asia was their mother by Iapetus. Perseis, wife of Helios and mother of Circe and Aeetes;Hesiod, Theogony 956–957; Apollodorus, 1.9.1. Idyia, wife of Aeetes and mother of Medea;Hesiod, Theogony 958–962; Apollodorus, 1.9.23. and Styx, the great river of the underworld river, and the wife of Pallas and mother of Zelus, Nike, Kratos, and Bia.Hesiod, Theogony 383–385; Apollodorus, 1.2.4.
According to Epimenides' Theogony, Oceanus was the father, by Gaia, of the Harpies.Gantz, p. 18. Oceanus was also said to be the father, by Gaia, of Triptolemus.Apollodorus, 1.5.2, attributing Pherecydes =; Pausanias, 1.14.3, attributing "Musaeus" presumably Musaeus of Athens. Nonnus, in his poem Dionysiaca, described "the lakes" as "liquid daughters cut off from Oceanos".Nonnus, 'Dionysiaca'' 6.252. He was said to have fathered the Cercopes on one of his daughters, Theia.Tzetzes ad Lycophron, 91 (Gk text); Fowler, p. 323; " Cercopes." Suda On Line. Tr. Jennifer Benedict. 11 April 2009
Plato, in his Timaeus, provides a genealogy (probably Orphism) which perhaps reflected an attempt to reconcile this apparent divergence between Homer and Hesiod, in which Uranus and Gaia are the parents of Oceanus and Tethys, and Oceanus and Tethys are the parents of Cronus and Rhea and the other Titans, as well as Phorcys.Gantz, pp. 11–12; West 1983, pp. 117–118; Fowler 2013, p. 11; Plato, Timaeus 40d–e. In his Cratylus, Plato quotes Orpheus as saying that Oceanus and Tethys were "the first to marry", possibly also reflecting an Orphic theogony in which Oceanus and Tethys, rather than Uranus and Gaia, were the primeval parents.West 1983, pp. 118–120; Fowler 2013, p. 11; Plato, Cratylus 402b =. Plato's apparent inclusion of Phorcys as a Titan (being the brother of Cronus and Rhea), and the mythographer Apollodorus's inclusion of Dione, the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus, as a thirteenth Titan,Apollodorus, 1.1.3, 1.3.1. suggests an Orphic tradition in which the Titan offspring of Oceanus and Tethys consisted of Hesiod's twelve Titans, with Phorcys and Dione taking the place of Oceanus and Tethys.Gantz, p. 743.
According to Epimenides, the first two beings, Nyx and Aer, produced Tartarus, who in turn produced two Titans (possibly Oceanus and Tethys) from whom came the world egg.Fowler 2013, pp. 7–8.
Oceanus seemingly also did not join the Titans in the Titanomachy, the great war between Cronus and his fellow Titans, and Zeus and his fellow Twelve Olympians, for control of the cosmos; and following the war, although Cronus and the other Titans were imprisoned, Oceanus certainly seems to have remained free.Fowler 2013, p. 11; Hard, p. 37; Gantz, pp. 28, 46; West 1983, p. 119. In Hesiod, Oceanus sends his daughter Styx, with her children Zelus (Envy), Nike (Victory), Cratos (Power), and Bia (Force), to fight on Zeus' side against the Titans,Hard, p. 37; Gantz, p. 28; Hesiod, Theogony 337–398. The translations of the names used here follow Caldwell, p. 8. And in the Iliad, Hera says that during the war she was sent to Oceanus and Tethys for safekeeping.Hard, p. 40; Gantz, p. 11; Homer, Iliad 14.200–204.
Sometime after the war, Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, has Oceanus visit his nephew the enchained Prometheus, who is being punished by Zeus for his theft of fire.Gantz, p. 28; Hard, p. 40; Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 286–398. Oceanus arrives riding a winged steed,Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 286–289, 395 (which describes the beast as "four-footed"). Hard, p. 40 suggests that Oceanus' steed is a griffin or griffin-like, while Gantz, p. 28, suggests griffin or hippocamp. saying that he is sympathetic to Prometheus' plight and wishes to help him if he can.Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 290–299. But Prometheus mocks Oceanus, asking him: "How did you summon courage to quit the stream that bears your name and the rock-roofed caves you yourself have made ..."Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 301–303. Oceanus advises Prometheus to humble himself before the new ruler Zeus, and so avoid making his situation any worse. But Prometheus replies: "I envy you because you have escaped blame for having dared to share with me in my troubles."Aeschylus (?), Prometheus Bound 332–333.
According to Pherecydes, while Heracles was travelling in Helios's golden cup, on his way to Erytheia to fetch the cattle of Geryon, Oceanus challenged Heracles by sending high waves rocking the cup, but Heracles threatened to shoot Oceanus with his bow, and Oceanus in fear stopped.Gantz, p. 404; Frazer's note 7 to Apollodorus 2.5.10; Hard, p. 40.
Both Hesiod and Homer locate Oceanus at the ends of the earth, near Tartarus, in the Theogony,Gantz, p. 27; Hesiod, Theogony 729–792. or near Elysium, in the Iliad,Homer, Iliad 14.200–201, 4.563–568. and in the Odyssey, has to be crossed in order to reach the "dank house of Hades".Gantz, pp. 27, 123, 124; Homer, Odyssey 10.508–512, 11.13–22. And for both Hesiod and Homer, Oceanus seems to have marked a boundary beyond which the cosmos became more fantastical.As George M. A. Hanfmann, Oxford Classical Dictionary s.v. Oceanus, p. 744, puts it: "the land where reality ends and everything is fabulous". The Theogony has such fabulous creatures as the Hesperides, with their golden apples, the three-headed giant Geryon, and the snake-haired Gorgons, all residing "beyond glorious Ocean".Hesiod, Theogony 215–216 (Hesperides), 287–299 (Geryon), 274 (Gorgons). While Homer located such exotic tribes as the Cimmerians, the , and the Pygmies as living nearby Oceanus.Cimmerians: Odyssey 11.13–14; Aethiopians: Iliad 23.205–206, Odyssey 1.22–24 (since Oceanus is where the sun, Helios Hyperion, rises and sets); Pygmies: Iliad 1.5–6.
In Homer, Helios the sun, rises from Oceanus in the east,Homer, Iliad 7.421–422, = Odyssey 19.433–434. and at the end of the day sinks back into Oceanus in the west,Homer, Iliad 8.485, 18.239–240. and the stars bathe in the "stream of Ocean".Homer, Iliad 5.5–6, 18.485–489. Compare with Homer, Iliad 23.205 which has Iris, the personification of the rainbow, say "I must go back unto the streams of Oceanus". According to later sources, after setting, Helios sails back along Oceanus during the night from west to east.Gantz, pp. 27, 30.
Just as Oceanus the god was the father of the river gods, Oceanus the river was said to be the source of all other rivers, and in fact all sources of water, both salt and fresh.Hard, p. 36; Gantz, p. 27. According to Homer, from Oceanus "all rivers flow and every sea, and all the springs and deep wells".Homer, Iliad 21.195–197. Being the source of rivers and springs would seem logically to require that Oceanus was himself a freshwater river, and so different from the salt sea, and in fact Hesiod seems to distinguish between Oceanus and Pontus, the personification of the sea.West 1966, p. 201 on line 133. However elsewhere the distinction between fresh and salt water seems not to apply. For example, in Hesiod Nereus and Thaumus, both sons of Pontus, marry daughters of Oceanus, and in Homer (who makes no mention of Pontus), Thetis, the daughter of Nereus, and Eurynome the daughter of Oceanus, live together.Gantz, p. 27; Homer, Iliad 398–399. In any case, Oceanus can also to be identified with the sea.West 1966, p. 201 on line 133.
The concept of the surrounding Ocean, as expressed by Homer and Hesiod, remained in common use throughout antiquity. The Roman geographer Pomponius Mela said that the inhabited earth ‘is entirely surrounded by the Ocean, from which it receives four seas’.Pomponius Mela, De situ orbis, 1.5. These four seas were the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. However increasing knowledge of the seas led to modifications in this view. The Greek geographer Ptolemy identified various different oceans.William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 'Atlanticum Mare', at Perseus. One of these, the Western Ocean (the Atlantic Ocean) was often called simply ‘the Ocean’, for instance by Julius Caesar.Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico, 3.7.
Oceanus also appears, as part of a very similar procession of Peleus and Thetis' wedding guests, on another early sixth century BC Attic black-figure pot, the François Vase (Florence 4209). LIMC 1602 (Okeanos 3); Beazley Archive 300000; AVI 3576. As in Sophilos' dinos, Oceanus appears at the end of the long procession, following after the last chariot, with Hephaestus on his mule bringing up the rear. Although little remains of Oceanus, he was apparently shown here with a bull's head.Gantz, pp. 28, 229–230; Beazley, p. 27; Perseus Florence 4209 (Vase). Compare with Euripides, Orestes 1375–1379, which calls Oceanus "bull-headed" ( ταυρόκρανος ). The similarity in the order of the wedding guests on these two vases, as well as on the fragments a second Sophilos vase (Athens Akr 587), suggests the possibility of a literary source.Gantz, pp. 229–230; Williams, p. 33; Perseus: London 1971.11-1.1 (Vase).
Oceanus is depicted (labeled) as one of the gods fighting the Giants in the Gigantomachy frieze of the second century BC Pergamon Altar. LIMC 617 (Okeanos 7); Jentel, p. 1195; Queyrel, p. 67; Pollit, p. 96. Oceanus stands half nude, facing right, battling a giant falling to the right. Nearby Oceanus are fragments of a figure thought to be Tethys: a part of a chiton below Oceanus' left arm and a hand clutching a large tree branch visible behind Oceanus' head.
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 (often represented as the claws of a crab) and the lower body of a serpent ( cfr. Typhon). In Roman mosaics, such as that from Le Bardo, he might carry a steering-oar and cradle a ship.
Herodotus was skeptical about the physical existence of Oceanus and rejected the reasoning—proposed by some of his coevals—according to which the uncommon phenomenon of the summerly Nile flood was caused by the river's connection to the mighty Oceanus. Speaking about the Oceanus myth itself he declared:
As for the writer who attributes the phenomenon to the ocean, his account is involved in such obscurity that it is impossible to disprove it by argument. For my part I know of no river called Ocean, and I think that Homer, or one of the earlier poets, invented the name, and introduced it into his poetry. Histories II, 21 ff.
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 Sea.
Late attestations for an equation with the Black Sea abound, the cause being – as it appears – Odysseus' travel to the Cimmerians whose fatherland, lying beyond the Oceanus, is described as a country divested from sunlight.Homer, Odyssey 11.13–19. In the fourth century BC, Hecataeus of Abdera writes that the Oceanus of the Hyperboreans is neither the Arctic nor Western Ocean, but the sea located to the north of the ancient Greek world, namely the Black Sea, called "the most admirable of all seas" by Herodotus,Herodotus, Histories 4.85. labelled the "immense sea" by Pomponius Mela De situ orbis I, 19. and by Dionysius Periegetes, Orbis Descriptio V, 165. and which is named Mare majus on medieval geographic maps. Apollonius of Rhodes, similarly, calls the lower Danube the Kéras Okeanoío ("Gulf" or "Horn of Oceanus").Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 4.282.
Hecataeus of Abdera also refers to a holy island, sacred to the Pelasgian (and later, Greek) Apollo, situated in the westernmost part of the Okeanós Potamós, and called in different times Leuke or Leukos, Alba, Fidonisi or Isle of Snakes. It was on Leuke, in one version of his legend, that the hero Achilles, in a hilly tumulus, was buried (which is Folk etymology connected to the modern town of Kiliya, at the Danube delta). Accion ("ocean"), in the fourth century AD Gaulish Latin of Avienius' Ora maritima, was applied to great lakes.Mullerus in Cl. Ptolemaei Geographia, ed. Didot, p. 235.
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