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Oceanus

The world-encircling river and the first-named Titan in Hesiod, son of Earth and Heaven and husband of Tethys, father of all rivers and of three thousand daughters, chief among them Styx. Homer's Hera calls him the one "from whom the gods are sprung"; Apollodorus says he alone of the Titans refused to attack their father.

Why this wins its question: Keeps Homer's Oceanus-as-origin apart from Hesiod's Oceanus-as-Titan and binds the numbers everyone quotes — three thousand daughters, a tenth for Styx — to the lines.

Key takeaways

  • First-named Titan in Hesiod and Apollodorus; father with Tethys of every river and three thousand Oceanids (Theog. 133, 337–370).
  • Homer's "from whom the gods are sprung" is a different cosmogony from Hesiod's, not a paraphrase of it (Il. 14.201, 246).
  • Apollodorus alone records that he refused to attack Uranus (Apollod. 1.1.4).
  • The Styx is a tenth of his stream, which winds nine times round the earth (Theog. 787–792).

Claims

Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.

  1. Oceanus heads Hesiod's list of the Titans born to Earth and Heaven — "deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus" (Theog. 133) — and Apollodorus's too: "Ocean, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus" (Apollod. 1.1.3).

    confidence 0.95Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primaryApollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  2. With Tethys he fathered the rivers — Nilus, Alpheus, Eridanus, Strymon, Meander, Ister, Scamander and the rest (Theog. 337–345) — and "a holy company of daughters", forty-one named, "Styx who is the chiefest of them all"; "there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean" and as many rivers, sons (Theog. 346–370).

    confidence 0.95Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  3. Homer makes him the origin of the gods: Hera sets out to visit "Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung, and mother Tethys" who nursed her (Il. 14.200–204), and Sleep calls him "Oceanus, from whom they all are sprung" (Il. 14.245–246). Hesiod, who makes him a son of Earth and Heaven, has no such cosmogony.

    confidence 0.92Homer, Iliad — tr. A. T. Murray (Loeb, 1924), Perseus TEI edition · primaryHesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  4. Apollodorus records that when Earth armed the Titans against Sky, "they, all but Ocean, attacked him" (Apollod. 1.1.4) — Oceanus is the one Titan who stays out of the castration.

    confidence 0.92Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca) — tr. Sir James George Frazer (Loeb, 1921), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  5. Styx's oath-water is a tenth of him: "a branch of Oceanus flows through the dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the earth and the sea's wide back" (Theog. 787–792).

    confidence 0.93Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

  6. He is the stream at the edge of the world: Doris is "daughter of Ocean the perfect river" (Theog. 241–242), Helios drives his horses "down again through heaven to Ocean" (HH31 15–16), and Selene bathes "in the waters of Ocean" before she rises (HH32 7–8).

    confidence 0.9Hesiod, Theogony — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primaryThe Homeric Hymns — tr. Hugh G. Evelyn-White (Loeb, 1914), Perseus TEI edition · primary

Questions answered

Is Oceanus a Titan?
Oceanus heads Hesiod's list of the Titans born to Earth and Heaven — "deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus" (Theog. 133) — and Apollodorus's too: "Ocean, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus" (Apollod. 1.1.3). source
Who are the children of Oceanus and Tethys?
With Tethys he fathered the rivers — Nilus, Alpheus, Eridanus, Strymon, Meander, Ister, Scamander and the rest (Theog. 337–345) — and "a holy company of daughters", forty-one named, "Styx who is the chiefest of them all"; "there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean" and as many rivers, sons (Theog. 346–370). source
Is Oceanus the origin of the gods in Homer?
Homer makes him the origin of the gods: Hera sets out to visit "Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung, and mother Tethys" who nursed her (Il. 14.200–204), and Sleep calls him "Oceanus, from whom they all are sprung" (Il. 14.245–246). Hesiod, who makes him a son of Earth and Heaven, has no such cosmogony. source
Did Oceanus fight against Uranus?
Apollodorus records that when Earth armed the Titans against Sky, "they, all but Ocean, attacked him" (Apollod. 1.1.4) — Oceanus is the one Titan who stays out of the castration. source
How is Styx related to Oceanus?
Styx's oath-water is a tenth of him: "a branch of Oceanus flows through the dark night out of the holy stream, and a tenth part of his water is allotted to her. With nine silver-swirling streams he winds about the earth and the sea's wide back" (Theog. 787–792). source