Greek deities
series
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| Primordial deities
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| Olympians
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| Chthonic deities
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| Personified concepts
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| Other deities
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| Titans
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| The Twelve Titans:
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| Oceanus and Tethys,
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| Hyperion and Theia,
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| Coeus and Phoebe,
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| Rhea, Mnemosyne,
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| Metis, Themis,
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| Crius, Iapetus
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| Sons of Iapetus:
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| Atlas, Prometheus,
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| Epimetheus, Menoetius
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| Aquatic deities
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Oceanus or Okeanos refers to the ocean, which the Greeks and Romans regarded as a river circling the world. In Greek mythology this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, a son of Uranus and Gaia. In ancient Greek reliefs this Titan is often depicted as having the upper body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns, and the lower torso of a serpent. (Compare Typhon.)
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.
Some scholars believe he originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies the ancient Greeks knew of. 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 Poseidon ruled over the Mediterranean.
In most variations of the war between the Titans and the Olympians ("Titanomachy"), Oceanus, along with Prometheus, and Themis, did not take the side of their fellow Titans against the Olympians, but instead withdrew from the conflict. In most variations of this myth Oceanus also did not side with Cronus in his revolt against Uranus.
In Iliad the rich iconography of Achilles' shield that Hephaestus made, is enclosed, as the world itself is, by Okeanos:
- "Then, running round the shield-rim, triple-ply,
- he pictured all the might of the Ocean stream."
Oceanos was the name of a Greek cruise ship that sank off of the coast of South Africa in 1991.
No lives were lost, but the Captain and crew left before many of the passengers.
See also
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