TETHYS GODDESS OF THE RIVER OCEANUS

[GateKeeper]

Tethys, as the goddess-wife of the great earth-encircling River Okeanos, oversaw the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies--the Sun, Moon, Dawn, Starry Constellations, and Clouds.

Plato, Cratylus 400d & 401e (trans. Fowler) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"[Plato constructs philosophical etymologies for the names of the gods :]
Sokrates : Let us inquire what thought men had in giving them [the gods] their names . . . The first men who gave names [to the gods] were no ordinary persons, but high thinkers and great talkers . . . Herakleitos [philosopher C6th to 5th B.C.] says, you know, that all things move and nothing remains still, and he likens the universe to the current of a river, saying that you cannot step twice into the same stream . . . Well, don't you think he who gave to the ancestors of the other gods the names 'Rhea' and 'Kronos' [derived by Plato from the Greek words 'flow' and 'time'] had the same thought as Herakleitos? Do you think he gave both of them the names of streams merely by chance? Just so Homer, too, says--`Okeanos the origin of the gods, and their mother Tethys;' and I believe Hesiod says that also. Orpheus, too, says--`Fair-flowing Okeanos was the first to marry, and he wedded his sister Tethys, daughter of his mother.' See how they agree with each other and all tend towards the doctrine of Herakleitos.
Hermogenes : I think there is something in what you say, Sokrates; but I do not know what the name of Tethys means.
Sokrates : Why, the name itself almost tells that it is the name of a spring somewhat disguised; for that which is strained (diattômenon) and filtered (êthoumenon) represents a spring, and the name Tethys is compounded of those two words."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 2. 115 ff (trans. Way) (Greek epic C4th A.D.) :
"The unending flow and ebb of Tethys, of the sacred flood of Okeanos fathomless-rolling."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 3. 743 ff :
"Over the Okeanos' streams, over Tethys' caverns." [N.B. Tethys' caverns are the subterranean aquifers which feed the rivers from the stream of Okeanos.]

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 5. 14 ff :
"[Depicted on the shield of Akhilleus :] Here [on the shield of Akhilleus] Tethys' all-embracing arms were wrought, and Okeanos' fathomless flow. The outrushing flood of Rivers crying to the echoing hills all round, to right, to left, rolled o'er the land."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 11. 415 ff :
"Olympian Zeus himself from heaven in wrath smote down the insolent bands of Gigantes grim, and shook the boundless earth, Tethys and Okeanos, and the heavens."

Quintus Smyrnaeus, Fall of Troy 12. 159 ff :
"Imperious Zeus far from the Gods had gone to Okeanos's streams and Tethys' caves."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 67 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) :
"The final part [of the path of Helios across the sky] drops sheer; then above all control must be assured, and even she whose waters lie below to welcome me, Tethys, waits [in Okeanos] fearful lest I headlong fall."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 2. 156 ff :
"The four swift horses of Sol [Helios the Sun] . . . kick at the gates, neighing and snorting fire, and Tethys then, her grandson’s fate undreamt, draws back the bars and makes the horses free of all the boundless heavens. Forth they go, tearing away, and cleave with beating hooves the clouds before them, and on wings outride the winds that westwards from the morning blow [and the sun rises up above the horizon]."

Ovid, Metamorphoses 13. 949 ff :
"Tethys and Oceanus . . . [took] away my [the sea-god Glaukos'] mortal essences. They purified me with a ninefold chant that purges my sins; then bade me plunge my body beneath a hundred rivers. Instantly torrents cascaded down from near and far and poured whole seas of waters on my head."

Seneca, Hercules Furens 884 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) :
"Whatever land is washed by Tethys’ far-reaching circuit [i.e. the River Okeanos] Alcides’ [Herakles'] toil has conquered."

Seneca, Phaedra 570 ff :
"Sooner shall Tethys from her [i.e. the river Okeanos'] far western shore (Hesperia) bring in bright dawn."

Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 2. 34 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :
"And now Hyperion’s [Helios the Sun’s] car drew close to its goal in the Hiberian [Spanish] Sea, and with declining day the reins slackened at the journey’s end, what time the ancient Tethys raised her hands for the embrace and the holy Titan [Helios] hissed as he cleft the floor of Oceanus."

Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 5. 428 ff :
"[Depicted on the walls of the palace of Aeetes :] Scarce can Tethys gather the fragments of yoke and axle [after the disastrous flight of Phaethon in the chariot of the sun], or rescue Pyroeis [one of the horses of the Sun] who fears the father’s [Helios’] grief."

Statius, Thebaid 3. 33 ff (trans. Mozley) (Roman epic C1st A.D.) :
"Mighty Tethys had driven forth tardy Hyperion [Helios the sun] from the Eastern sea."


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