Oceanus — The World-Ocean

I. Who Was Oceanus?

Oceanus was the eldest of the Titans and the god of the great earth-encircling river Okeanos, a massive freshwater stream that the ancient Greeks believed flowed around the flat disc of the earth. He was not a god of the salt sea (that was Poseidon's domain) but rather the cosmic river from which all the world's rivers, springs, fountains, and rain clouds drew their water.

With his sister-wife Tethys, Oceanus fathered the three thousand river gods (Potamoi) and three thousand ocean nymphs (Oceanids) — making him the ancestor of virtually every freshwater deity in Greek mythology. Famous Oceanids include Metis (Zeus's first wife and mother of Athena), Styx (the river of the underworld), Calypso (who detained Odysseus), and Clymene (mother of Prometheus).

Uniquely among the Titans, Oceanus did not participate in the castration of Uranus, and during the Titanomachy he remained neutral rather than fighting against the Olympians. For this reason, he was not imprisoned in Tartarus with his brothers and was allowed to continue flowing around the edges of the world undisturbed. Homer portrays him as the origin of all things — even the gods themselves.