Oceanus, also known as Okeanos and Oceanos or just, as later rationalised mostly by the Latin authors, Ocean

APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 1, translated by J. G. FRAZER

[1.1.3] And again he begat children by Earth, to wit, the Titans as they are named: Ocean, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, and, youngest of all, Cronus; also daughters, the Titanides as they are called: Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione, Thia.

[1.1.4] But Earth, grieved at the destruction of her children, who had been cast into Tartarus, persuaded the Titans to attack their father and gave Cronus an adamantine sickle. And they, all but Ocean, attacked him, and Cronus cut off his father's genitals and threw them into the sea; and from the drops of the flowing blood were born Furies, to wit, Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera.

[1.2.2] Now to the Titans were born offspring: to Ocean and Tethys were born Oceanids, to wit, Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and Metis; to Coeus and Phoebe were born Asteria and Latona; to Hyperion and Thia were born Dawn, Sun, and Moon; to Crius and Eurybia, daughter of Sea (Pontus), were born Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses;

[1.5.2] But for Triptolemus, the elder of Metanira's children, she made a chariot of winged dragons, and gave him wheat, with which, wafted through the sky, he sowed the whole inhabited earth. But Panyasis affirms that Triptolemus was a son of Eleusis, for he says that Demeter came to him. Pherecydes, however, says that he was a son of Ocean and Earth.

APOLLODORUS LIBRARY, Book 2, translated by J. G. FRAZER

[2.1.1] Having now gone through the family of Deucalion, we have next to speak of that of Inachus. Ocean and Tethys had a son Inachus, after whom a river in Argos is called Inachus.

[2.5.10] As a tenth labour he was ordered to fetch the kine of Geryon from Erythia. Now Erythia was an island near the ocean; it is now called Gadira. This island was inhabited by Geryon, son of Chrysaor by Callirrhoe, daughter of Ocean.

APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, ARGONAUTICA, Book 4, translated by R. C. SEATON

[627] Thence they entered the deep stream of Rhodanus which flows into Eridanus[hyperborean river]; and where they meet there is a roar of mingling waters. Now that river, rising from the ends of the earth, where are the portals and mansions of Night, on one side bursts forth upon the beach of Ocean, at another pours into the Ionian sea, and on the third through seven mouths sends its stream to the Sardinian sea and its limitless bay.

ARATUS, PHAENOMENA, translated by G. R. MAIR

[565]Ocean himself will give thee signs at either horn – the East or the West – in the many constellations that wheel about him, when from below he sends forth each rising sign.

[569] Not very faint are the wheeling constellations that are set about Ocean at East and West, when the Crab [Cancer] rises, some setting in the West and other rising in the East.

[590] At the coming of the Lion [Leo] those constellations wholly set, which were setting when the Crab rose, and with them sets the Eagle. But the Phantom On His Knees winks all save knee and left foot beneath the stormy ocean.

[634] The winding River will straightway sink in fair flowing ocean at the coming of Scorpion [Scorpio], whose rising puts to flight even the mighty Orion.

[744] Yea, and on the sea, too, many a sailor has marked the coming of the stormy tempest, remembering either dread Arcturus or other stars that draw from ocean in the morning twilight or tat he first fall of night.

CALLIMACHUS, Hymn to Artemis, translated by A. W. MAIR

[13] And give me sixty daughters of Oceanus for my choir – all nine years old, all maidens yet ungirdled; and give me for handmaidens twenty nymphs of Amnisus who shall tend well my buskins, and, when I shoot no more at lynx or stag, shall tend my swift hounds.

[40] And the maiden faired unto the white mountain of Crete leafy with woods; thence unto Oceanus; and she chose many nymphs all nine years old, all maidens yet ungirdled.

CALLIMACHUS, Hymn to Delos[Asteria] translated by A. W. MAIR

[11] Wind-swept and stern is she[Asteria] set in the sea, and, wave-beaten as she is, is fitter haunt for gulls than course for horses. The sea, rolling greatly round her, casts off on her much spindrift of the Icarian water. Wherefore also sea-roaming fishermen have made her their home. But none need grudge that she be named among the first, whensoever unto Oceanus and unto Titan Tethys the islands gather and she ever leads the way.

CALLIMACHUS, Hymn on the bath of Pallas, translated by A. W. MAIR

[5] Never did Athena wash her mighty arms before she drave the dust from the flanks of her horses – not even when, her armour all defiled with filth, she returned from the battle of the lawless Giants; but far first she loosed from the care her horses’ necks, and in the springs of Oceanus washed the flecks of sweat and from their mouths that champed the bit cleansed the clotted foam.

CALLISTRATUS, DESCRIPTIONS, translated by ARTHUR FAIRBANKS

DESC ON THE FIGURE OF ATHMAS - And round about her stood Nereids; these were dainty and bright to look upon, distilling love’s desire from their eyes; and circling in their dance over crests of the sea’s waves, they amazed the spectator. About them flowed Oceanus, the motion of his stream being well-nigh like the billows of the sea.

DESC ON THE STATUE OF ORPHEUS - Beneath his feet heaven was not represented nor the Pleiades coursing the aether nor the revolving Bear that “has no part in the baths of Oceanus,”

CLAUDIAN, RAPE OF PROSEPINE, Book 1, translated by MAURICE PLATNAUER

[269] Next she[PERSEPHONE] began to trace Ocean’s glassy shallows at the tapestry’s farthest edge, but at that moment the doors opened, she saw the goddesses enter, and left her work unfinished.

[276] Now the sun was dipped in Ocean, and misty Night scattering sleep had brought for mortals ease and leisure in her black two-horsed chariot; when Pluto, warned by his brother, made his way to the upper air.

CLAUDIAN, RAPE OF PROSEPINE, Book 3, translated by MAURICE PLATNAUER

[7] The starry heaven is thrown open and the gods are bidden take their seats as merit, not chance, dictates. The first places are accorded to the heavenly powers, next come the ocean-deities, calm Nereus and grey-haired Phorcus, last twiform Glaucus and Proteus, for once of unvarying shape. The agèd river-gods, too, are privileged to take their seats; the other rivers, a thousand strong, stand as stands the youth of an earthly assembly. Dripping water-nymphs lean on their moist sires and Fauns in silence marvel at the stars.

[170] And there, lying in the innermost parts of the house, she saw Electra, loving nurse of Proserpine, best known among the old Nymphs of Ocean; she who loved Proserpine as did Ceres.

CLAUDIAN, SHORTER POEMS, Poem to Phoenix, translated by MAURICE PLATNAUER

[1] There is a leafy wood fringed by Ocean’s farthest marge beyond the Indes and the East where Dawn’s panting coursers first seek entrance; it hears the lash close by, what time the watery threshold echoes to the dewy car; and hence comes forth the rosy morn while night, illumined by those far-shining wheels of fire, casts off her sable cloak and broods less darkly.

CLEMENT, RECOGNITIONS, Book 10, translated by REV. THOMAS SMITH

Chapter [17] - GENTILE COSMOGONY - From the heaven they say that six males were produced, whom they call Titans; and in like manner, from the earth six females, whom they called Titanides. And these are the names of the males who sprang from the heaven: Oceanus, Coeus, Crios, Hyperion, Iapetus, Chronos, who amongst us is called Saturn. In like manner, the names of the females who sprang from the earth are these: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys, Hebe [Phoebe].

Chapter [31] - HESIOD COMOGONY - But to this Hesiod adds, that after chaos the heaven and the earth were made immediately, from which he says that those eleven were produced (and sometimes also he speaks of them as twelve) of whom he makes six males and five females. And these are the names that he gives to the males: Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Chronos, who is also called Saturn. Also the names of the females are: Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Tethys. And these names they thus interpret allegorically. They say that the number is eleven or twelve: that the first is nature itself, which also they would have to be called Rhea, from Flowing; and they say that the other ten are her accidents, which also they call qualities; yet they add a twelfth, namely Chronos, who with us is called Saturn, and him they take to be time. Therefore they assert that Saturn and Rhea are time and matter; and these, when they are mixed with moisture and dryness, heat and cold, produce all things.

DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 4, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER

[4.18.2] And after Heracles had visited a large part of Libya he arrived at the ocean near Gadeira, where he set up pillars on each of the two continents.

[4.18.4] When Heracles arrived at the farthest points of the continents of Libya and Europe which lie upon the ocean, he decided to set up these pillars to commemorate his campaign.

[4.56.4] And the writers even offer proofs of these things, pointing out that the Celts who dwell along the ocean venerate the Dioscori above any of the gods, since they have a tradition handed down from ancient times that these gods appeared among them coming from the ocean.

[4.69.1] We shall now discuss in turn the Lapiths and Centaurs. To Oceanus and Tethys, so the myths relate, were born a number of sons who gave their names to rivers, and among them was Peneius, from whom the river Peneius in Thessaly later got its name.

DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 5, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER

[5.41.4] On the farthest bounds of Arabia the Blest, where the ocean washes it, there lie opposite it a number of islands, of which there are three which merit a mention in history, one of them bearing the name of Hiera, or Sacred, on which it is not allowed to bury the dead, and another lying near it, seven stades distant, to which they take the bodies of the dead whom they see fit to inter.

[5.42.3] And there is yet another large island, thirty stades distant from the one we have mentioned, lying out in the ocean to the east and many stades in length; for men say that from its promontory which extends toward the east one can descry India, misty because of its great distance.

[5.42.4] As for Panchaea itself, the island possesses many things which are deserving to be recorded by history. It is inhabited by men who were sprung from the soil itself, called Panchaeans, and the foreigners there are Oceanites and Indians and Scythians and Cretans.

[5.66.3] The males were Cronus, Hyperion, Coeus, Iapetus, Crius, and Oceanus, and their sisters were Rhea, Themis, Mnemosynê, Phoebê, and Tethys. Each one of them was the discoverer of things of benefit to mankind, and because of the benefaction they conferred upon all men they were accorded honours and everlasting fame.

DIODORUS SICULUS, LIBRARY OF HISTORY, Book 6, translated by C. H. OLDFATHER

[6.1.10] “And going to Babylon he was entertained by Belus, and after that he went to the island of Panchaea, which lies in the ocean, and here he set up an altar to Uranus, the founder of his family.

GREEK EPIC CYCLE, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE

FRAGMENT 8 - Now she [Nemesis] took the form of a fish and sped over the waves of the loud-roaring sea, and now over Ocean's stream and the furthest bounds of Earth, and now she sped over the furrowed land, always turning into such dread creatures as the dry land nurtures, that she might escape him[Zeus].

FRAGMENT 21 - By him she conceived and bare the Gorgons, fearful monsters who lived in Sarpedon, a rocky island in deep-eddying Oceanus.

HESIOD, FRAGMENTS, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE

Hesiod says that these Hesperides . . . daughters of Night, guarded the golden apples beyond Ocean: Aegle and Erythea and ox-eyed Hesperethusa.

HESIOD, THEOGONY, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE

[134] But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.

[213] And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean

[270] And again, Ceto bare to Phorcys the fair-cheeked Graiae, sisters grey from their birth: and both deathless gods and men who walk on earth call them Graiae, Pemphredo well-clad, and saffron-robed Enyo, and the Gorgons who dwell beyond glorious Ocean in the frontier land towards Night where are the clear-voiced Hesperides, Sthenno, and Euryale, and Medusa who suffered a woeful fate: she was mortal, but the two were undying and grew not old.

And when Perseus cut off her head, there sprang forth great Chrysaor and the horse Pegasus who is so called because he was born near the springs (pegae) of Ocean; and that other, because he held a golden blade (aor) in his hands.

[334] And Tethys bare to Ocean eddying rivers, Nilus, and Alpheus, and deep-swirling Eridanus, Strymon, and Meander, and the fair stream of Ister, and Phasis, and Rhesus, and the silver eddies of Achelous, Nessus, and Rhodius, Haliacmon, and Heptaporus, Granicus, and Aesepus, and holy Simois, and Peneus, and Hermus, and Caicus fair stream, and great Sangarius, Ladon, Parthenius, Euenus, Ardescus, and divine Scamander.

[346] Also she brought forth a holy company of daughters who with the lord Apollo and the Rivers have youths in their keeping -- to this charge Zeus appointed them -- Peitho, and Admete, and Ianthe, and Electra, and Doris, and Prymno, and Urania divine in form, Hippo, Clymene, Rhodea, and Callirrhoe, Zeuxo and Clytie, and Idyia, and Pasithoe, Plexaura, and Galaxaura, and lovely Dione, Melobosis and Thoe and handsome Polydora, Cerceis lovely of form, and soft eyed Pluto, Perseis, Ianeira, Acaste, Xanthe, Petraea the fair, Menestho, and Europa, Metis, and Eurynome, and Telesto saffron-clad, Chryseis and Asia and charming Calypso, Eudora, and Tyche, Amphirho, and Ocyrrhoe, and Styx who is the chiefest of them all. These are the eldest daughters that sprang from Ocean and Tethys; but there are many besides. For there are three thousand neat-ankled daughters of Ocean who are dispersed far and wide, and in every place alike serve the earth and the deep waters, children who are glorious among goddesses. And as many other rivers are there, babbling as they flow, sons of Ocean, whom queenly Tethys bare, but their names it is hard for a mortal man to tell, but people know those by which they severally dwell.

[782] But when strife and quarrel arise among the deathless gods, and when any of them who live in the house of Olympus lies, then Zeus sends Iris to bring in a golden jug the great oath of the gods from far away, the famous cold water which trickles down from a high and beetling rock. Far under the wide-pathed earth 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.

HESIOD, SHIELD OF HERACLES, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE

[314] And round the rim Ocean was flowing, with a full stream as it seemed, and enclosed all the cunning work of the shield. Over it swans were soaring and calling loudly, and many others were swimming upon the surface of the water; and near them were shoals of fish.

HESIOD, WORKS AND DAYS, translated by H. G. EVELYN-WHITE

[163] But to the others father Zeus the son of Cronos gave a living and an abode apart from men, and made them dwell at the ends of earth. And they live untouched by sorrow in the islands of the blessed along the shore of deep swirling Ocean, happy heroes for whom the grain-giving earth bears honey-sweet fruit flourishing thrice a year, far from the deathless gods, and Cronos rules over them; for the father of men and gods released him from his bonds.

[564] When Zeus has finished sixty wintry days after the solstice, then the star Arcturus [late February, early March] leaves the holy stream of Ocean and first rises brilliant at dusk. After him the shrilly wailing daughter of Pandion, the swallow, appears to men when spring is just beginning. Before she comes, prune the vines, for it is best so.

HOMER, ILIAD, Book 1, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[470] Meanwhile, you should sit by your swift ships, angry at Achaeans. Take no part in war. For yesterday Zeus went to Oceanus, to banquet with the worthy Ethiopians. The gods all journeyed with him. In twelve days, when he returns and comes home to Olympus, I'll go to Zeus' bronze-floored house, clasp his knee.

[550] Twelve days later, the company of gods came back together to Olympus, with Zeus in the lead. Thetis did not forget the promise to her son. She rose up through the ocean waves at daybreak, then moved high up to great Olympus.

HOMER, ILIAD, Book 7, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[494] Just as the sun began to shine down on the fields, rising from the gently flowing Ocean depths, climbing in the sky, the two groups met each other.

HOMER, ILIAD, Book 14, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[239] I[Hera]'m going to visit the limits of this all-nourishing earth, to see Oceanus, from whom the gods arose, and mother Tethys, the two who reared me, taking good care of me inside their home, once they got me from Rhea, that time Zeus, who sees far and wide, forced Cronos underground, under the restless seas.

HOMER, ILIAD, Book 18, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[738] On that shield, Hephaestus then depicted Ocean, the mighty river, flowing all around the outer edge.

HOMER, ILIAD, Book 20, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[6] Zeus told Themis to summon gods to an assembly. She raced around, calling them to Zeus' home. None of the rivers was left out, except Oceanus, nor any nymph. All those who live in lovely woods, river springs, and grassy meadows came together at cloud-gatherer Zeus' home, seating themselves on porticoes of polished stone, built there by Hephaestus' cunning arts for his father Zeus.

HOMER, ILIAD, Book 21, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[232] For there's no way to battle against Zeus, son of Cronos. Even lord Achelous cannot equal him, nor the great power of deep flowing Oceanus, from whom all rivers, seas, fountains, and deep wells derive their water—even Oceanus is afraid of lighting from great Zeus and his thunder when it crashes in the skies.

HOMER, ODYSSEY, Book 4, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[760] The gods will send you off to the Elysian fields, and to the outer limits of the earth—the place where fair-haired Rhadamanthus lives and life for human beings is really easy—there's no snow or heavy storms or even rain, and Oceanus sends a steady breeze, as West Wind blows to keep men cool and fresh.

HOMER, ODYSSEY, Book 5, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[332] Sleep did not fall upon his eyelids as he watched the constellations—the Pleiades, the late-setting Bootes, and the Great Bear, which men call the Wain, always turning in one place, keeping watch over Orion—the only star that never takes a bath in Ocean

HOMER, ODYSSEY, Book 11, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[14] Our ship then reached the boundaries of deep-flowing Oceanus, where Cimmerians have their lands and city, a region always wrapped in mist and cloud. Bright Helios never gazes down on them, not when he rises into starry heaven, or when he turns again from heaven to earth.

HOMER, ODYSSEY, Book 12, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[1] Our ship sailed on, away from Ocean's stream, across the great wide sea, and reached Aeaea, the island home and dancing grounds of Dawn.

HOMER, ODYSSEY, Book 24, translated by IAN JOHNSTON

[11] Hermes the Deliverer conducted them along the murky passageway. They went past the streams of Ocean, past Leucas, past the gates of the Sun and the land of Dreams, and very soon came to the field of asphodel,where spirits live, the shades of those whose work is done.

HYGINUS, ASTONOMICA, translated by MARY GRANT

[2.31] Some call this the Nile, though many call it Ocean. Those who advocate the Nile point out that it is correctly so called on account of the great length and usefulness of that River, and especially because below the sign is a certain star, shining more brightly than the rest, called Canopus. Canopus is an island washed by the river Nile.

HYGINUS, FABULAE, translated by MARY GRANT

From Aether and Earth: Grief, Deceit, Wrath, Lamentation, Falsehood, Oath, Vengeance, Intemperance, Altercation, Forgetfulness, Sloth, Fear, Pride, Incest, Combat, Ocean, Themis, Tartarus, Pontus; and the Titans, Briareus, Gyges, Steropes, Atlas, Hyperion, and Polus, Saturn, Ops, Moneta, Dione; and three Furies – namely, Alecto, Megaera, Tisiphone.

From Ocean and Tethys the Oceanides - namely *yaea Melite, Ianthe, Admete, Stilbo, Pasiphae, Polyxo, Eurynome, Euagoreis, Rhodope, *lyris, Clytie, *teschinoeno, *clitenneste, Metis, Menippe, Argia. Of the same descent Rivers: Strymon, Nilus, Euphrates, Tanais, Indus, Cephisus, Ismenus, Axenus, Achelous, Simois, Inachus, Alpheus, Therodoon, Scamandrus, Tigris, Maeandrus, Orontes.

CHAPTER [177] For Tethys, wife of Ocean, and foster mother of Juno, forbids its setting in the Ocean. This, then, is the greater Septentrio, about whom it is written in Cretan verses: “Thou, too, born of the transformed Lycaonian Nympha, who, stolen from the chill Arcadian height, was forbidden by Tethys ever to dip herself in the Oceanus because once she dared to be concubine to her foster child.

CHAPTER [182] The daughters of Oceanus are Idothea, Althaea, and Adrasta, but others say they are daughters of Melisseus, and nurses of Jove. The nymphs which are called Dodonides (others call them Naides) . . . Their names are Cisseis, Nysa, Erato, Eriphia, Bromis, Polyhymno. On Mount Nysa these obtained a boon from their foster-son, who made petition to Medea. Putting off old age, they were changed to young girls, and later, consecrated among the stars, they are called Hyades. Others report that they were called Arsinoe, Ambrosie, Bromie, Cisseis, and Coronis.

LUCIAN, DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD, translated by H. W. & F. G. FOWLER

[25] - ALEXANDER AND HANNIBAL - To say nothing of Tyre and Arbela, I [Alexander] penetrated into India, and carried my empire to the shores of Ocean; I captured elephants; I conquered Porus; I crossed the Tanais, and worsted the Scythians—no mean enemies—in a tremendous cavalry engagement. I heaped benefits upon my friends: I made my enemies taste my resentment.

NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 2, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE

[244] The sun appeared, and many-armed Typhoeus roared for the fray with all the tongues of all his throats, challenging mighty Zeus. That sonorous voice reached where the root-fixt bed of refluent Oceanos surrounds the circle of the world and its four divided parts, girdling the whole earth coronet-wise with encircling band.

[273] “I [Typhoeus] will compel the four winds also to labour as my slaves; I lash the North Wind, I buffet the South, I flog the East; I will thrash the West, with one hand I will mix night with day; Oceanos my brother shall bring his water to Olympos aloft with many-fountained throat, and rising above the five parallel circles he shall inundate the stars; then let the thirsty Bear go wandering in the water with the Waggon’s pole submerged!

NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 6, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE

[224] Now Oceanos poured rivers of tears from his watery eyes, a libation of suppliant prayer. Then Zeus calmed his wrath at the sight of the scorched earth; he pitied her, and wished to wash with water the ashes of ruin and the fiery wounds of the land.

[249] Now the barriers of the sevenzoned watery sky were opened, when Zeus poured down his showers. The mountain-torrents roared with fuller fountains of the loudsplashing gulf. The lakes, liquid daughters cut off from Oceanos, raised their surface. The fountains shot spouts of the lower water of Oceanos into the air.

NONNUS, DIONYSIACA, Book 12, translated by W. H. D. ROUSE

[1] So these by the brows of western Oceanos took ship for the mansion of Helios their father. As they approached, Hesperos the Evening Star leapt up and went out of the hall to meet them. Selene herself also darted out newrisen, showing her light as she drove her cattle.

[114] That is what the Euain maiden saw on the tablets. She departed joyful, and with her Sisters was away to the stream of the eastern Ocean, moving along with Phaëthon’s team.

ORPHIC HYMNS, Hymn to Muses, translated by THOMAS TAYLOR

I call great Ocean [Okeanos], and the beauteous train of nymphs, who dwell in chambers of the main;

ORPHIC HYMNS, To Nymphs, translated by THOMAS TAYLOR

Nymphs, who from Ocean's [Okeanos'] stream derive your birth, who dwell in liquid caverns of the earth

ORPHIC HYMNS, To Oceanus, translated by THOMAS TAYLOR

Ocean I call, whose nature ever flows, from whom at first both Gods and men arose;
Sire incorruptible, whose waves surround, and earth's concluding mighty circle bound:
Hence every river, hence the spreading sea, and earth's pure bubbling fountains spring from thee:
Hear, mighty fire, for boundless bliss is thine, whose waters purify the pow'rs divine:
Earth's friendly limit, fountain of the pole, whose waves wide spreading and circumfluent roll.
Approach benevolent, with placid mind, and be for ever to thy mystics kind.

OVID, FASTI, Book 4, translated by J. G. FRAIZER

[420] The Trinacrian land got its name from its natural position: it runs out into the vast ocean in three rocky capes. It is the favourite home of Ceres.

OVID, FASTI, Book 5, translated by J. G. FRAIZER

[18] But for a long time neither did Earth yield pride of place to Sky, nor did the other heavenly bodies to Phoebus; their honours were all equal. Often someone of the common sort of gods would dare to sit upon the throne which thou, Saturn, didst own; not one of the upstart deities took the outer side of Ocean, and Themis was often relegated to the lowest place, until Honour and comely Reverence with her calm look united in lawful wedlock

[80] Then Calliope, her unkempt hair bound up with ivy, thus began, first of her choir: “Tethys, the Titaness, who wedded of old by Ocean, who encompasses the earth, far as it stretches, with his flowing waters.

OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 1, translated by BROOKES MORE

[5] Before the ocean and the earth appeared—before the skies had overspread them all—the face of Nature in a vast expanse was naught but Chaos uniformly waste.

OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 2, translated by BROOKES MORE

[508] Juno on high beheld Calisto crowned with glory—great with rage her bosom heaved. She flew across the sea, to hoary Tethys and to old Oceanus, whom all the Gods revere, and thus to them in answer to their words she made address; “And is it wondered that the Queen of Gods comes hither from ethereal abodes?

OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 5, translated by BROOKES MORE

[498] A better hour, when thou art lightened of thy cares, will come, and when thy countenance again is kind; and then may I declare what cause removed me from my native place—and through the waves of such a mighty ocean guided me to find Ortygia[Sicily].

OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 8, translated by BROOKES MORE

[834] The more his stomach gets, the more it needs—even as the ocean takes the streams of earth, although it swallows up great rivers drawn from lands remote, it never can be filled nor satisfied.

OVID, METAMORPHOSES, Book 9, translated by BROOKES MORE

[499] The Gods forbid! The Gods have sisters! Truth declares even Saturn married Ops, his own blood-kin, Oceanus his Tethys, Jove, Olympian his Juno. But the Gods are so superior in their laws, I should not measure human custom by the rights established in the actions of divinities.

PAUSANIAS, DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, Book 1, translated by W. H. S. JONES

[1.33.3] Of this marble Pheidias made a statue of Nemesis, and on the head of the goddess is a crown with deer and small images of Victory. In her left hand she holds an apple branch, in her right hand a cup on which are wrought Aethiopians. As to the Aethiopians, I could hazard no guess myself, nor could I accept the statement of those who are convinced that the Aethiopians have been carved upon the cup be cause of the river Ocean. For the Aethiopians, they say, dwell near it, and Ocean is the father of Nemesis.

[1.33.4] It is not the river Ocean, but the farthest part of the sea navigated by man, near which dwell the Iberians and the Celts, and Ocean surrounds the island of Britain. But of the Aethiopians beyond Syene, those who live farthest in the direction of the Red Sea are the Ichthyophagi (Fish-eaters), and the gulf round which they live is called after them. The most righteous of them inhabit the city Meroe and what is called the Aethiopian plain. These are they who show the Table of the Sun, and they have neither sea nor river except the Nile.

QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS, FALL OF TROY, Book 3, translated by A. S. WAY

[758] So in her wisdom spake Calliope. Then plunged the sun down into Ocean's stream, and sable-vestured Night came floating up o'er the wide firmament, and brought her boon of sleep to sorrowing mortals.

QUINTUS SMYRNAEUS, FALL OF TROY, Book 10, translated by A. S. WAY

[207] There Perseus slew Medusa gorgon-eyed by the stars' baths and utmost bounds of earth and fountains of deep-flowing Ocean, where Night in the far west meets the setting sun.

SENECA, MEDEA, translated by F. J. MILLER

[374] There will come an age in the far-off years when Ocean shall unloose the bonds of things, when the whole broad earth shall be revealed, when Tethys shall disclose new worlds and Thule not be the limit of the lands.

VALLERIUS FLACCUS, ARGONAUCTICA, Book 4, J. H. MOZLEY

[90] Meanwhile the stars are now gliding into the life-giving springs of mighty Ocean, and the bridles are jingling in the Titanian caves; hastened by the golden-haired Hours the Sun puts on his diadem of myriad rays and the corselet woven of twelve stars and bound by the belt which athwart the rain-clouds shows for me its many hued bow.

[564] ...Then rock the deepest fastenings of the world, lo! the ground trembles, the very houses suddenly quake before thy sight; once more they return and fight upon the sea. Heaven itself when thou hast drawn nigh them, heaven itself perchance will give thee aid and wisdom. But I, with what counsel could I help thy enterprise? For ye are sailing a sea from which winds and birds keep far away, nay, the very father of the ocean turns his frightened reins aside.

VALLERIUS FLACCUS, ARGONAUCTICA, Book 5, J. H. MOZLEY

[165] The vast length of Pontus trembled, and all the Iberian land that lies beside Armenia, and as the ocean shook to its utmost depths the Minyae feared the Cyanean Rocks they had left behind.

[558] Without delay they spring forward, men whom neither the Riphaean nor Hiberian youth nor all the quivers of the Dawn could check. The warriors stand first in extended line, and together make trial, if weapons and limbs obey their bidding. None any more casts a look toward the sea or the cities of his own land, rather they march toward the glory that awaits them. A keen breeze shakes their crests, and the road blooms with the varied hues of arms, even as rising from the ocean stars in their multitude clothe the sparkling air, even as the constellations girdle at her arising the golden night.

VALLERIUS FLACCUS, ARGONAUCTICA, Book 6, J. H. MOZLEY

[163] Boreas drives not so many billows from ocean’s bounds, nor so answers his brothers from opposing waves: not so loud is the clamour of birds about the rivers, as is then the blare of trumpets that ascends to heaven, filling with frenzy the mingled myriads, numerous as leaves or flowers in the opening year.

VIRGIL, AENEID, Book 2, translated by H. R. FAIRCLOUGH

[250] Meanwhile the sky revolves and night rushes from the ocean, wrapping in its mighty shade earth and heaven and the wiles of the Myrmidons.

VIRGIL, AENEID, Book 4, translated by H. R. FAIRCLOUGH

[480] ...Near Ocean’s bound and the setting sun lies Ethiopia, farthest of lands, where mightiest Atlas on this shoulders turns the sphere, inset with gleaming stars.

VIRGIL, GEORGICS, Book 4, translated by H. R. FAIRCLOUGH

[379] Some load the board with the feast, and in turn set on the brimming cups; the altars blaze up with Panchaean fires. Then cried his mother: “Take the goblets of Maeonian wine’; pour we a libation to Ocean!” And she prayed to Ocean, universal father, and the sister Nymphs, who guard the hundred forests and a hundred streams.

REFERENCE, WIKIPEDIA

Some scholars believe that Oceanus originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. However, as geography became more accurate, Oceanus came to represent the stranger, more unknown waters of the Atlantic Ocean (also called the Ocean Sea), while the newcomer of a later generation, Poseidon, ruled over the Mediterranean.