Key Info

- A vast river that encircles the planet and is the final barrier before the end of reality

Brief Bio

Although sometimes treated as a person, Oceanus is more usually considered to be a place, that is, as the great world-encircling river. Twice Hesiod calls Oceanus "the perfect river" and Homer refers to the "stream of the river Oceanus". Both Hesiod and Homer call Oceanus "backflowing", since, as the great stream encircles the earth, it flows back into itself. Hesiod also calls Oceanus "deep-swirling", while Homer calls him "deep-flowing". Homer says that Oceanus "bounds the Earth", and Oceanus was depicted on the shield of Achilles, encircling its rim, and so also on the shield of Heracles

Both Hesiod and Homer locate Oceanus at the ends of the earth, near Tartarus, in the Theogony, or near Elysium, in the Iliad, and in the Odyssey, has to be crossed in order to reach the "dank house of Hades". And for both Hesiod and Homer, Oceanus seems to have marked a boundary beyond which the cosmos became more fantastical.

In Homer, Helios the sun, rises from Oceanus in the east, and at the end of the day sinks back into Oceanus in the west, and the stars bathe in the "stream of Ocean". According to later sources, after setting, Helios sails back along Oceanus during the night from west to east.

Just as Oceanus the god was the father of the river gods, Oceanus the river was said to be the source of all other rivers, and in fact all sources of water, both salt and fresh. According to Homer, from Oceanus "all rivers flow and every sea, and all the springs and deep wells".