Oceanus: Titan God of the World Ocean

The Story of Oceanus

Oceanus was the eldest son of Uranus and Gaia, the first of the twelve Titans. The Greeks imagined him not as a sea but as a vast river that flowed in a circle around the whole flat earth. Beyond his waters lay the edges of the world, where the sun and stars rose and set.

He married his sister Tethys, and together they had thousands of children. Their sons were the river gods of the world, and their daughters were the Oceanids, nymphs of springs, streams and the sea. Homer even calls Oceanus the source from which all rivers, springs and seas flow.

Unlike most of the Titans, Oceanus is usually said to have stayed out of the war against Zeus. During the fighting, Rhea brought her young daughter Hera to Oceanus and Tethys for safety, and they raised her kindly at their home at the edge of the world. Because he took no side, Oceanus kept his place and was not sent to Tartarus.

In Aeschylus's play Prometheus Bound, Oceanus visits the chained Prometheus, riding a winged creature. He urges the rebel Titan to bow to Zeus and offers to plead for him, but Prometheus refuses and warns him not to risk Zeus's anger. The scene shows Oceanus as a cautious elder who prefers peace to rebellion.

Artists showed Oceanus as an old man with a long beard, sometimes with horns like a bull and the tail of a fish or serpent. His image appears on mosaics and fountains across the Greek and Roman world. Our word ocean comes from his name, a lasting reminder of the river that circled the earth.