Everything about Tethys Mythology totally explained
In Classical
Greek mythology,
Tethys (Greek
Τηθύς), daughter of
Uranus and
Gaia (
Hesiod,
Theogony lines 136, 337 and
Bibliotheke 1.2) was a
Titaness and sea
goddess who was both sister and wife of
Oceanus. She was mother of the chief rivers of the world known to the Greeks, such as the
Nile, the
Alpheus, the
Maeander, and about three thousand daughters called the
Oceanids. Considered as an embodiment of the waters of the world she also may be seen as a counterpart of
Thalassa, the embodiment of the sea.
Although these vestiges imply a strong role in earlier times, Tethys plays virtually no part in recorded Greek literary texts, or historical records of
Greek religion or cults.
Walter Burkert notes the presence of Tethys in the episode of
Iliad XIV that the Ancients called the "
Deception of Zeus", where Hera, to mislead Zeus, says she wants to go to
Oceanus, "origin of the gods" and Tethys "the mother". Burkert sees in the name a transformation of Akkadian
tiamtu or
tâmtu, "the sea," which is recognizable in
Tiamat.
One of the few representations of Tethys that's identified securely by an accompanying inscription is the Late Antique (fourth century CE) mosaic from the flooring of a
thermae at
Antioch, now at
Dumbarton Oaks, in Washington, D.C. In the Dumbarton Oaks mosaic, the bust of Tethys—surrounded by fishes—is rising, bare-shouldered from the waters. Against her shoulder rests a golden ship's rudder. Gray wings sprout from her forehead, as in the mosaics illustrated above and below.
During
the war against the Titans, Tethys raised
Rhea as her god-child, but there are no records of active cults for Tethys in historic times.
Tethys has sometimes been confused with another sea goddess who became the sea-nymph
Thetis, the wife of
Peleus and mother of
Achilles during Classical times. Some myths imply a second generation relationship between the two, a grandmother and granddaughter.
Indicative of the power exercised by Tethys, one myth relates that the prominent goddess of the Titans,
Hera, wasn't pleased with the placement of
Callisto and
Arcas in the sky, as the
constellations Ursa Major and
Ursa Minor, so she asked her
nurse, Tethys, to help. Tethys, a marine goddess, caused the constellations forever to circle the sky and never drop below the horizon, hence explaining why they're circumpolar.
Robert Graves interprets the use of the term
nurse in Classical myths as identifying deities who once were goddesses of central importance in the periods before historical documentation.
Tethys, a moon of the planet
Saturn, and the prehistoric
Tethys Ocean are named after this goddess.
Children of Tethys
, daughter of
Oceanus and
Tethys in Greek mythology.]]
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