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OCEANUS (Gr. 'Slrceavts)

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 988 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OCEANUS (Gr. 'Slrceavts) , in See also:Greek See also:mythology, the greatest of See also:rivers and at the same See also:time a divine personification. Never mingling with the See also:sea which it encloses, according to See also:Homer it has neither source nor mouth. On its See also:southern See also:banks, from See also:east to See also:west, dwell the " blameless Aethiopians " in perfect happiness, and beyond it on the west, in the realms of eternal See also:night, the " Cimmerians," wrapped in fogs and darkness. Here are the See also:grove of Persephone and the entrance of the underworld. Personified, Oceanus is in See also:Hesiod (Theog. 133, 337-370) the son of See also:Uranus and Gaea, the See also:husband of Tethys. See also:father of 3000 streams and 4000 ocean See also:nymphs. In Homer he is the origin of all things, even the father of the gods, and the equal in See also:rank of all of them See also:save See also:Zeus. This conception recurs in the theory of Thales, who made See also:water the first principle of all things. The See also:idea of Oceanus as a See also:river flowing unceasingly See also:round the See also:earth, which was regarded as a See also:flat circle, was of See also:long continuance. See also:Euripides was the first among the tragic poets to speak of it as a sea, but See also:Herodotus before him ridiculed the notion of Oceanus as a river as an invention of the poets and described it as the See also:great See also:world sea. As the See also:geographical knowledge of the Greeks extended, the name was applied to the See also:outer sea (especially the See also:Atlantic).

In See also:

art, Oceanus was represented as an old See also:man of See also:noble presence and benevolent expression, with the horns of an ox and sometimes crab's claws on his See also:head. His attributes are a )itcher, cornucopiae (" See also:horn of plenty "), rushes, marine animals and a See also:sceptre. On the See also:altar of See also:Pergamum he is depicted taking See also:part in the See also:battle of the giants. Homer, Iliad, i. 423, xiv. 201, 215, xxi. 196; Odyssey, x. 508, xi. 14; Herodotus ii. 23, iv. 8; Euripides, See also:Orestes, 1376; See also:Caesar, See also:Bell. See also:Gall. iii.

7, iv. 10.

End of Article: OCEANUS (Gr. 'Slrceavts)

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