OCEANUS

in Greek mythology, the river that flowed around the Earth (conceived as flat). Beyond it, to the west, were the sunless land of the Cimmerii, the country of dreams, and the entrance to the underworld. In Hesiod's Theogony, Oceanus was the son of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth), the husband of the Titan Tethys, and father of 3,000 stream spirits and 3,000 ocean nymphs. In Homer's works he was the origin of the gods. As a common noun the word received almost the modern sense of ocean.