Oceanus
- proper noun
- Literature
:
Océano
- Homer speaks of Oceanus and Tethys on numerous occasions.
- Oceanus and Tethys
- Oceanus myth
- Homer's Oceanus
Examples
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Many ancient texts refer to Oceanus as the source of all bodies of water on Earth.
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On Aristotle's account, the move from Homer to Thales is from Oceanus, god of the primordial river, to mere water as the first principle and cause.
Academic text (2017) -
All water flowed from Oceanus, including the water in the local well.
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For that reason, Oceanus shall be primarily referenced in the balance of this article.
Academic text (2017) -
Note that Oceanus alone (that is, without Tethys) appears in Homer's cosmological accounts.
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In Homer, the sky is Zeus in the strongest possible tautological sense of the verb "to be," and here, Oceanus is the primordial river encircling the earth.
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In the Theaetetus, Socrates similarly asserts, "For when Homer talked about 'Oceanus, begetter of gods, and Tethys their mother,' he made all things the offspring of flux and motion."
Academic text (2017) -
In Greek mythology, Oceanus is the god who personifies the immense river believed to encircle the world.
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The Greeks believed that Oceanus was the father of the rivers and all waters, representing the boundary of the known world.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Oceanus comes from the Greek name Okeanos, the great river thought to circle the world. The modern word ocean is from the same root, so imagine Oceanus as the old god of the vast sea that surrounds the earth.
