Oceanus

In Greek mythology, Oceanus or Okeanos was one of the Titans, the children of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), and the god of the great river which encircled the entire world. He was the brother and husband of the Titaness Tethys, and by her was the father of the river gods and the Oceanids.

Etymology

According to M. L. West, the etymology of Oceanus is "obscure" and "cannot be explained from Greek".West 1997, 146; see also Hard, p. 40 The use by Pherecydes of Syros of the form ()Marmoz, Julien. "La Cosmogonie de Phérécyde de Syros". In: Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée n. 5 (2019-2020). pp. 5-41. for the name lends support for the name being a loanword.Fowler 2013, p. 11; West 1997, p. 146; Pherecydes of Syros, Vorsokr. 7 B 2. However, according to West, no "very convincing" foreign models have been found.West 1997, p. 146. A Semitic derivation has been suggested by several scholars,Fowler 2013, p. 11; West 1997, pp. 146–147. while R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a loanword from the Aegean Pre-Greek non-Indo-European substrate.Fowler 2013, p. 11 n. 34; Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek s.v. Nevertheless, Michael Janda sees possible Indo-European connections.Janda, pp. 57 ff.

Genealogy Oceanus was the eldest of the Titan offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth).Hesiod, Theogony 132–138; Apollodorus, 1.1.3. Compare with Diodorus Siculus, 5.66.1–3, which says that the Titans (including Oceanus) "were born, as certain writers of myths relate, of Uranus and Gê, but according to others, of one of the Curetes and Titaea, from whom as their mother they derive the name". Hesiod lists his Titan siblings as Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, and Cronus.Apollodorus adds Dione to this list, while Diodorus Siculus leaves out Theia. Oceanus married his sister Tethys, and was by her the father of numerous sons, the river gods, and numerous daughters, the Oceanids.Hesiod, Theogony 337–370; Homer, Iliad 200–210, 14.300–304, 21.195–197; Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 137–138 (Sommerstein, pp. 458, 459), Seven Against Thebes 310–311 (Sommerstein, pp. 184, 185); Hyginus, Fabulae Preface (Smith and Trzaskoma, p. 95). For Oceanus as father of the river gods, see also: Diodorus Siculus, 4.69.1, 72.1. For Oceanus as father of the Oceanids, see also: Apollodorus, 1.2.2; Callimachus, Hymn 3.40–45 (Mair, pp. 62, 63); Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, 242–244 (Seaton, pp. 210, 211). For a discussion of these offspring of Oceanus and Tethys see Hard, pp. 43.

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, Istros, Phasis, 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 [= FGrHist 2 1 = Vorsokr. 9 B 21 = Macrobius, Saturnalia 5.18.9–10, 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 Trojans 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's first wife, whom Zeus impregnated with Athena and then swallowed;Hesiod, Theogony 886–900; Apollodorus, 1.3.6. Eurynome, Zeus's 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's 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 [= Pherecydes fr. 53 Fowler; 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; Fowler, p. 323; "Cercopes." Suda On Line. Tr. Jennifer Benedict. 11 April 2009

Primeval father?

Passages in a section of the Iliad called the Deception of Zeus, suggest the possibility that Homer knew a tradition in which Oceanus and Tethys (rather than Uranus and Gaia, as in Hesiod) were the primeval parents of the gods.Fowler 2013, pp. 8, 11; Hard, pp. 36–37, p. 40; West 1997, p. 147; Gantz, p. 11; Burkert 1995, pp. 91–92; West 1983, pp. 119–120. Twice Homer has Hera describe the pair as "Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung, and mother Tethys".Homer, Iliad 14.201, 302 [= 201]. According to M. L. West, these lines suggests a myth in which Oceanus and Tethys are the "first parents of the whole race of gods."West 1997, p. 147. However, as Timothy Gantz points out, "mother" could simply refer to the fact that Tethys was Hera's foster mother for a time, as Hera tells us in the lines immediately following, while the reference to Oceanus as the genesis of the gods "might be simply a formulaic epithet indicating the numberless rivers and springs descended from Okeanos".Gantz, p. 11. Compare with Iliad 21.195–197. But, in a later Iliad passage, Hypnos also describes Oceanus as "genesis for all", which, according to Gantz, is hard to understand as meaning other than that, for Homer, Oceanus was the father of the Titans.Gantz, p. 11; Homer, Iliad 14.245.

Plato, in his Timaeus, provides a genealogy (probably Orphic) 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 [= Orphic fr. 15 Kern. 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, Night 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.

Mythology

When Cronus, the youngest of the Titans, overthrew his father Uranus, thereby becoming the ruler of the cosmos, according to Hesiod, none of the other Titans participated in the attack on Uranus.Hesiod, Theogony 165–181. However, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, all the Titans—except Oceanus—attacked Uranus.Hard, p. 37; Apollodorus, 1.1.4. Proclus, in his commentary on Plato's Timaeus, quotes several lines of a poem (probably Orphic) which has an angry Oceanus brooding aloud as to whether he should join Cronus and the other Titans in the attack on Uranus. And, according to Proclus, Oceanus did not in fact take part in the attack.Gantz, pp. 12, 28; West 1983, p. 130; Orphic fr. 135 Kern.

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 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's 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's 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's 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.

Geography